Business News

From chicken feathers to fire retardant

Researchers at the University of Auckland have developed a way to turn chicken feathers into a high-performing fire retardant. Chicken is a popular source of protein in most parts of the world and millions of chickens are produced each year for us to eat – in New Zealand it’s estimated we each eat, on average, about 40 chickens a year. Billions of chicken feathers are produced by the poultry industry, most of which end up in the incinerator or landfill. Chicken feathers are, in short, an international waste problem. However, Distinguished Professor Debes Bhattacharyya of the Faculty of Engineering has found a way to use chicken feathers as a base for a fire retardant, one that is safer than many fire retardants, cheaper to produce, and solves an international waste problem at the same time. “People pay to get rid of chicken feathers,” he says. Chicken feathers are made of a keratinous material that is found in the hair, wool, horns and hooves of mammals. They are also naturally occurring flame inhibitors. Fire retardants are added to industrial and consumer products such as furniture, textiles, electronics, even Christmas trees, as well as building products such as insulation. Traditionally halogen compounds were added to create flame retardant material, but while they were effective they were highly toxic. “They might have saved you from death by burning, but have exposed people to many more effects that are detrimental to health. “Furthermore, as a result of the environmental long life and bioaccumulation, traces of the compounds have been detected in everything from household dust to breast milk, causing hormone-disrupting effects,” says Dr Bhattacharyya. As a result there has been a global shift away from halogenic retardants and toward other types of retardants among which ammonium polyphosphate (APP) is the most prominent. However, as […]

Refinery explores solar farm in Northland

Refining NZ, the owner and operator of the Marsden Point refinery is exploring the viability of a 26 MW solar farm to be potentially developed adjacent to the refinery to supply it with renewable electricity. The 31 hectare solar farm – New Zealand’s largest – would be situated on land belonging to the Company and is estimated to cost around $36-$39 million. The farm would be funded via a combination of non-recourse project debt funding and equity of around $12-15 million from the Company. Refining NZ Chairman, Simon Allen, said that progressing the solar farm is contingent on the Refining NZ Board being satisfied the project is economically viable. Early work shows that the solar farm would reduce the cost of the refinery’s electricity consumption and have a positive impact on shareholder value. Chief Executive Mike Fuge said that the potential to develop renewable electricity from solar would be a further step by the Company in the transition towards a lower carbon future. “This solar facility is one of a number of options being considered as part of the Company’s long-term business strategy, the potential benefits of which are exciting.” Said Fuge: “That transition to a greener future will be especially critical to the region and to the 600 Northlanders who come through the refinery gate every day.” As part of the Company’s exploration into solar, Refining NZ will be engaging with local stakeholders before lodging a resource consent application for the solar farm.

Very smart Australian manufacturing

Solar-powered furniture offers off-grid connection South Australian outdoor furniture brand Sedi has developed bespoke benches and shelter options for smart cities and regional areas. Bronte Modra, the director of Adelaide-based modular engineering company Specialised Solutions, created the Sedi range of park benches, parklets and bus stops in February this year. The smart shelters are built from sustainable timber and steel and have solar-powered lighting, integrated charging ports, WIFI and informational screens that all run off a battery. Modra said he created Sedi to fill a large hole in the Australian manufacturing market created by the burgeoning smart city movement. “People want to be connected to the furniture and to the web, and the greater society,” said Modra. “Everyone talks about smart cities but no one is really delivering a piece of smart furniture here. “We just saw a real need and something that we could make out of our existing facility.” The Sedi office is located at the Tonsley innovation district alongside technology companies such as SAGE Automation, which, together with JPE Design Studio, helped develop the furniture. Modra decided to make the units “off-grid” to attract buyers who couldn’t connect to a power source. “It being solar-powered gives us a lot more flexibility to where the Sedi is placed,” he said. “With Sedi we can go to regional, remote locations and open up connectivity there. “It’s also cost-saving measure for councils to install in the park [as] service connections are fairly expensive.” Modra said they weren’t “reinventing the wheel” with the furniture’s individual technological features, however these add-ons were compounded to develop a new brand of smart furniture fit for a multitude of environments. “We would like to see them absolutely everywhere: the typical bus stops on your streets, your typical parks, council parks and reserves,” he said. “But we’re really trying to tap […]

Taking on one of the biggest, invisible causes of climate change

A project has begun in New Zealand for the refrigerants industry to tackle one of the most potent, but least known causes of climate change. The gases used in refrigerants – perfluorocarbons (PFC) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) – are rated among the most effective at trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere; thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide with respect to their global warming potential, says sustainability expert Darren Patterson. This, combined with their widespread use, makes them a high priority target for tackling climate change worldwide, he says. As part of the project a Working Group has been established to represent the interests of the key industries affected by a priority product declaration, including refrigeration and air conditioning, motor vehicle industry (automotive air conditioning), refrigerant wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors and other significant industry stakeholders. This project is being managed by Hastings-based product stewardship specialists 3R Group. 3R Group Business Development Director Darren Patterson is leading the work on a mandatory product stewardship for refrigerant gases in New Zealand. Product stewardship sees producers, importers and retailers take responsibility for their products and ensure they are re-used, recycled or properly disposed of at end life. New Zealand is also bound by international agreement to phase down HFCs, Darren says. In 2016 the Government adopted the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which requires the phasing down of HFCs worldwide from the beginning of 2020 and will cease importing HFCs in 2036. RECOVERY, a voluntary product stewardship scheme for refrigerants has been operating in New Zealand since 1993. However, the whole industry isn’t involved. “It’s vital we have all the players involved to make the scheme as effective as possible. A co-regulatory scheme ‘levels the playing field’ as all companies would be required to participate,” Darren says. Under the current Waste Minimisation […]

Government reform dashes hope for industry

Cabinet paper a disappointing response to employers Industry training organisation (ITO) Competenz has three years to hand over its 20,000 apprentices and trainees and the 3,500 New Zealand employers it currently works alongside to the NZ Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST), the centralised polytechnic being formed by the Ministry of Education, according to the Government’s cabinet paper. Fiona Kingsford, Competenz CEO says both her organisation and its employers and industry leaders are disappointed that the industry-centric ITO sector will be phased out of workplace-based training. “We surveyed more than 1,000 of our employers this year who told us that ITOs perform a critical function and need more funding, not disestablishing.” The fundamental risk our industries face is the time involved and significant disruption of establishing a new NZIST and transitioning the workplace based training to the new system. It could mean being even less responsive to the fast-changing nature of work, which weakens the country’s ability to recruit, innovate and compete,” says Fiona. She concedes that phasing out ITOs over three years to 2022 is a positive change from the Government’s original proposal. “Extending the length of time that we can support our new and existing apprentices and trainees through the transition will ensure stability of their needs. “But we also know that any changes and uncertainty in this sector could mean a downturn in the number of people engaged in the entire vocational education system, so we will be working hard to ensure we continue to support our employers and learners throughout this period to make sure this doesn’t happen,” she said. Competenz has supported an increase of apprenticeships year on year, particularly in the engineering industry, which has seen 16 per cent growth in apprenticesover the past few years, and a 20 per cent hike in employers […]

5G to enhance manufacturing efficiency

More than one million people have subscribed to a 5G mobile contract in South Korea, meaning demand for the high-speed technology has easily outpaced the country’s adoption of 4G. The need for speed isn’t just essential for rapid telecommunication — we’d all rather communicate using faster and more reliable methods. 5G has created quite the media buzz recently. Although uptake continues to face its challenges, with the Australian government banning Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei’s 5G rollout in the country on national security grounds, the world is racing to implement the infrastructure. Next generation 5G networks can be 100 times faster than 4G, making communication between devices and servers much faster. This opens up a wealth of possibilities for manufacturing, helping the industry to increase its competitiveness and boost efficiency. The instant era Manufacturing runs on a tight schedule. Margins are squeezed more than ever as products are increasingly varied, customised and complex. Factories need to receive and transmit a wealth of data to keep their equipment informed — and fast. Ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC) is a new service category that will be supported in 5G, created to meet the requirements for 5G in industrial applications. By making the most of this category, machines can receive greater roaming power. In fact, 5G has very low latency, around 10 milliseconds in comparison to the 20-30 milliseconds with 4G, so equipment can be monitored in real time by human workers. With plans to reduce this latency to as little as one millisecond, the factory floor will receive updates on machinery almost instantaneously. Cutting the cord According to Ericsson’s report on 5G’s potential, enhanced communication will also mean greater flexibility for manufacturing robots. 5G will handle more complex data transmissions, such as cloud robotics where the cloud’s processing is relevant for the immediate […]

Beyond meat? The market for meat substitutes is way overdone

Paul Wood AO Adjunct Professor in Biotechnology, Monash University Meatless burger maker Beyond Meat has just reported quarterly earnings of US$67.3 million – much better than market expectations of US$52.7 million. It is now forecasting sales of US$240 million for the 2019 year, nearly three times that of 2018. But the company is yet to make a profit, let alone one big enough to justify its current market valuation of about US$13 billion. Since it listed on NASDAQ in May, its shares have surged more 700%. Investors’ enthusiasm reflects high hopes in the future fortunes of a company promising to put the sizzle into a meat substitute. Interest is booming in plant-based meat substitutes and lab-grown meat alternatives. The appeal is summed up by Beyond Meat’s mission statement: “By shifting from animal to plant-based meat, we are creating one savoury solution that solves four growing issues attributed to livestock production: human health, climate change, constraints on natural resources and animal welfare.” How realistic is this? The data suggests not very – that meat alternatives might play a positive role but in no way are going to save the planet. Investment appetite Predictions about the market potential for plant-based or lab-made meat vary. A lot of it appears to be only slightly better than sheer guesswork. One prediction, by the well-known Barclays, is that the market could be worth US$140 billion, or 10% of the US$1.4 trillion meat market, in the next 10 years. It’s such projections that have fuelled investors’ appetite for companies working on ways to make plant-based protein look and taste like meat. There’s Impossible Foods, for example, whose burger “bleeds” beetroot juice and is the meat (substitute) in Burger King’s Impossible Whopper. The privately held company has reportedly raised more than US$500 million, and is valued at US$2 billion. Other players in […]

Smooth transition key to successful vocational education reform

The reform of vocational education will need to be carefully managed to ensure there continues to be a skills pipeline for industry, BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope says. The changes to vocational training – the creation of a New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology, establishment of Workforce Development Councils and a longer term work programme on funding mechanisms – will create significant disruption to the training system at a time when the skills pipeline is already failing to keep up with demand, Mr Hope says. “We see potential for the new Workforce Development Councils to take a strong leadership role in the skills discussion with industry. They will need to have the appropriate resourcing and tools to be able to ensure that the training system can be more responsive and agile to the changing needs of industry.” Mr Hope says WDC’s will need to be able to reach into all parts of the education system to ensure pathways into employment and the relevance, timeliness, access and quality of training can be geared towards business and learners. The key challenge for the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology will be to lift the quality and access of vocational training across New Zealand. Mr Hope says there is still a lot of work to be done on the change programme. “Business invests millions of dollars in training their people and will continue to do so. The ability of the WDC’s and the NZIST to build effective relationships and offer value to business and the workforce will inform whether this investment is directed towards these institutions or not,” Mr Hope says.

How highly productive traditional industries can lead the wellbeing charge

Comment from: -Dr Troy Coyle, CEO, HERA -Dr Ganesh Nana, chief economist, BERL New Zealand is currently under the leadership of a coalition Government with a staunch focus on wellbeing, and business and industry need to understand how this focus changes the way they should assess their bottom line and their general contribution to the domestic economy. Treasury’s Living Standards Framework (LSF) encompasses the ‘four capitals’ – natural, human, social, and financial/physical – which affect our wellbeing as a nation and as a citizenry. All four capitals are meaningful for companies as financial entities, users of resources and employers of people – so how should we understand the vanguard role New Zealand’s traditional industries, such as the metals sector, can play in driving up the diverse indicators of wellbeing? Get measuring The New Zealand metals industry was the first sector to measure itself against the LSF, and the very act of self-examination is beneficial to an industry and its member companies, because of how it forces operators to analyse how they work in a larger economic, social and environmental framework. In particular, if you are working or hoping to work with the public sector, it is critical to acknowledge the different measures of success that are now being applied. Treasury’s approach is not a simple one, and we found we couldn’t measure everything – but we don’t ignore what we can’t measure, and we now look at how our sector can make things better for people, the environment and the economy. www.stocktrim.com/ Make your own definitions Our view is that the LSF does not have to be taken as rote – areas such as social capital are not yet sharply defined for a New Zealand context, and companies and sectors need to define the terms of wellbeing for themselves. The […]

Market demand enables tech drive expansion

SEW-Eurodrive, a global market leader in drive technology, the technology of transforming energy into motion, recently expanded its services and product range in New Zealand with the opening of its new purpose-built Service Centre and Warehouse at Nandina Avenue, East Tamaki, adjacent to their existing premises. An owner-operated international company formed in 1931 with a footprint in 50 countries, SEW-Eurodrive employs over 17,000 staff globally and turns over 3 billion Euro annually. New Zealand accounts for 48 of those staff numbers; eight in the Christchurch sales and assembly plant and 40 in the East Tamaki head office, working in sales, support, administration and production. Electric motors formed the beginnings of the company but the SEW-Eurodrive name now stands for much more and their product range includes geared motors, gear units, industrial gear units, motors, components for decentralised installation, electronically controlled drives, mechanical variable-speed gear units as well as drive solutions that involve complex engineering, not to mention a comprehensive range of services and maintenance. Managing Director, John Hainsworth explains, “Everything needs to be moved and we provide the means to move it. Ours is a big industry and everything is affected. “For example, the process of picking fruit to it being on your table, it’s got to get there and there are many motion processes in between. That’s our business, getting product from point A to point B through those processes.” SEW-Eurodrive supplies a large sector of the New Zealand domestic industry and work closely with OEM (original equipment manufacturers) and big brand end users alike to provide cost effective solutions. SEW-Eurodrive entered the New Zealand market in 1988 and purchased a building in East Tamaki. In 1996, the neighbouring section was purchased, and a new building was constructed specifically for their needs with the original being leased. When the tenants recently moved out, SEW-Eurodrive […]

«‹ 70 71 72 73 ›»

News Ticker

Business News