EcoWorth Tech Pte. Ltd. (EWT) has been successfully driven by its remarkable innovative CEO and Founder, André Stolz. He is a proficient leader who is inspiring many budding businesspersons who want to make an actual difference through their work. His convictions that people are one’s greatest asset and that one should cultivate, nurture, delegate, and enable others to make the right judgments serve as a yardstick for his wisdom.
A brief introduction to EcoWorth Tech
EcoWorth Tech, incorporated in 2016, is addressing the global issue of poor waste recycling and carbon emissions, as well as the inefficient treatment of contaminated and oily wastewater. It has developed Carbon Fiber Aerogel (CFA), an innovative and patented product that is highly effective in removing oil and organic contamination (up to 99.9%) from wastewater. It is made from natural waste; CFA is an environmentally friendly product that will reduce waste generation that ends up in landfills or incinerators, bringing about additional social and economic benefits. In addition, André states that CFA can be used in other applications, such as soil amendment and as a raw material in concrete. CFA is an environmentally friendly super-absorbent material made from cellulosic waste biomass. It is a solution that reduces biomass waste (carbon sequestration vs. emission) and provides efficient removal of organics from water (cleaning oily water). It has advanced material properties versus existing materials and can be used in wastewater treatment, oil spills, construction, and soil amendment.
Andre mentions that globally, there is both a legislative and regulatory push for companies to reuse, recycle, and reuse their waste and wastewater, as well as reduce their carbon footprint. EcoWorth Tech is looking to address all those issues by helping companies upcycle their waste into products that can not only be used to treat wastewater but also act as a carbon sink to reduce CO2 emissions that would otherwise be admitted via the natural decomposition of the waste material.
The perfect duo
Andre, a German, has 19 years of experience in innovation portfolio management, product supply, and engineering. He is an expert in innovation leadership, supply chain, manufacturing processes, and product program leadership, and he brings an extensive understanding of FMCG businesses from Braun/Oral-B and Procter & Gamble. He also brings significant experience in managing multi-disciplinary and multi-culturally diverse teams, specifically in Asia. He has been embedded in the Singapore innovation ecosystem since 2008 and has worked in Asia since 2005. He met his co-founder, Dr. Bert Grobben, while working together in Singapore in a corporate setting before turning full-entrepreneurial.
Dr. Bert Grobben is a seasoned executive with a 15-year MNC track record (Procter & Gamble, Avery Dennison). He is an expert in consumer and customer insight, product and pipeline development, innovation strategy (open innovation and internal), continuous improvement processes, and portfolio expansion. He holds wide experience across FMCG and consumer electronics businesses and is fluent in leading across regions and cultures. Moreover, he also took a resident entrepreneur position at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Both left corporate careers at Proctor & Gamble with the motivation to start something from the ground up to make a bigger impact. The founders wanted to leverage science-based technologies in order to create bigger social and environmental benefits. The duo set their sights on a breakthrough IP asset regarding the CFA that helps treat highly contaminated wastewater. They took on the challenge, spun out the startup from NTU, and took it to a stage where today it’s showing its environmental impact through the results generated with large industrial companies. EcoWorth Tech is set to rapidly expand into the wastewater treatment scene following the current scale-up of manufacturing capacity.
"EWT’s business model is centered around the sales of CFA and products that house CFA, such as cartridges or absorbent pillows and booms"
Expected Challenges
Andre faced various challenges in his professional journey. Besides securing funding, one key challenge EWT faces is that companies have a tendency to stick with what already works or what is cheaper, even if it is not the best choice for the environment. This makes it harder for EWT products to gain acceptance. EWT’s commercial scale-up stage initial costs may prevent clients from making the necessary switch to existing products or operations. This can be overcome by educating and articulating the overall benefits and costs of the overall circular economy model. Furthermore, conducting pilots with companies will enable the client to gain confidence in the results before switching over. Moreover, tightening legislation and a stronger push on resource utilization will support EWT’s mission to help companies achieve positive results by adopting greener solutions while placing greater importance on protecting the environment.
Andre and his co-founder are working with clients across the world, providing solutions out of its headquarters in Singapore and installing waste-to-worth equipment where it makes the most sense. He states that climate tech, sometimes known as green tech, has been a buzzword among investors over the past decade. Different countries in the SEA have different pressing environmental challenges, and hence there are a variety of start-ups that focus on different solutions. The climate tech industry as a whole has good traction and awareness, as EWT has seen a sharp increase in investments in greentech companies. However, because this market is competitive, many smaller start-ups lack visibility and face difficulties in breaking into new sectors. This challenge, however, is also an opportunity for the sector.
Future Prospects
CFA is a highly absorbent material that is non-toxic, natural, and recyclable. CFA is able to absorb a wide variety of organic materials (like different types of oils, grease, fats, and dyes) from wastewater. It can be made from a variety of cellulose-based materials. A few examples include empty fruit branches from the palm oil industry, waste paper, and sugarcane waste from Singapore’s food and beverage industry. It is centered around a waste-to-worth model, where waste material is used to create CFA, which is then used to treat a waste stream and generate value from it, providing both economic and environmental benefits to EWT’s B2B customers.
EWT’s business model is centered around the sales of CFA and products that house CFA, such as cartridges or absorbent pillows and booms. The eventual goal, though, is to work with a client and deliver a complete end-to-end water treatment solution, where EWT would charge the client for the delivery of the solution, the sale of CFA consumables, and the ongoing maintenance of said system.
Going forward, EcoWorth Tech is developing oil-removing solutions in order to efficiently remove oil from maritime applications (like bilge water treatment, tanker washing water, oil traps, and interceptor release) and from various spills on land, in lakes, or ports.
