Today's Edition
SHAMA ABDULLA (DUBAI)
Drawing inspiration from the Saharan silver ant, known for its ability to withstand the scorching heat of the Sahara Desert, innovators and environmentalists are exploring ways to reduce the energy costs of buildings across the world.
According to studies, the body shape of this tiny creature helps to disperse heat, particularly its triangular hairs that reflect sunlight as it scavenges on dead animals that have succumbed to the heat in the desert. Additionally, the Saharan silver ant has remarkable speed that aids it to adapt, enabling it to navigate the desert habitat before temperatures reach their daily peak.
Dr Martin Zhu, CEO & Co-Founder of technology startup i2Cool Limited, shared the company’s experience in developing cooling technology inspired by the Saharan Ant.
“We wanted to figure out why the Saharan silver ant can survive in the hot desert,” he said. “This animal can convert its body heat into 8 to 30 micron wavelengths that can pass through the atmosphere and be absorbed by the universe,” he added.
Derived from this insight, they invented the electricity free cooling technology that can be applied to different applications for carbon neutrality, he noted.
The main goal is to reduce the energy cost of buildings, he said, underscoring the urgent need in Hong Kong, an international financial and commercial hub, where buildings consume more than 30% of energy on air conditioners, owing to the hot and humid climate, Zhu said.
They started to apply the technology on commercial buildings in Hong Kong in September 2022 and discovered that using it on some outdoor equipment could lead to improvement in its cooling efficiency.
Zhu mentioned that they started the research in 2015 and they are using very expensive metal material to form the cooler.
He noted that the implantation could reduce the surface temperature by more than 30-40 degrees Celsius, reducing the internal temperature by around 5 to 10 °C, saving 20-40% of the energy cost of air conditioners.
However, Zhu believes that the UAE is a good place to implement this technology, noting that he won the EMAAR Properties Competition in February this year. He applied this technology for a project with Dubai Mall on its rooftop.
“We can use Dubai as a demonstration hub to show the cooling performance of our technology in the climate of the Middle East, because it is quite different from Hong Kong’s. We need to conduct more trials to prove its performance,” he said.
Zhu said the goal does not stop here. The company is planning to adopt this technology in cooling umbrellas and textiles, such as cooling T-shirts. They are safe to wear and have passed safety tests in Hong Kong, Mainland China and even the European standards, he added.
