Ecoflow Group Blog

This week has been centered around getting into more details about our project with other companies, and getting their feedback. We were able to see which firms were truly interested in our project as compared with others. To do so, we asked a series of specific questions outlined in our group presentation to assess the need for solar optics based active panels in residential areas. This led us to get in touch with one of the most specialized firms in the field of water preservation: Solar City. Solar City is partnering with Tesla for its home solar installations. We were able to get in touch with an energy consultant to talk about our innovative strategy for implementing our specific type of solar panels in homes around the US.

After talking to the greywater professor, we had a better idea of how the product works. We can turn the greywater patent into a product that we can sell to construction companies, radiant heating companies, or to homeowners directly depending on our business plan and strategy. The product is an integrated system of filtration, disinfection, and organic compound removal using a photocatalytic disinfection technology viable in small spaces (exterior walls of a house) The system uses sunlight for water disinfection, and can also act as a thermal mass to control daily temperature swings by absorbing heat during the day and releasing it through the night. The new exterior wall building system will significantly decrease water use allowing homeowners to save up to 100% on water cost. This brings a significant incentive to homeowners for not having to pay for water. After completing our value proposition canvas and talking to the professors, we realized that a good avenue for selling our ...

This week focus was on making our final decision on the selection of one of the 2 patents we were initially interested in. Waiting for the professors to answer our emails, we were eventually able to have an appointment with the cyanobacteria researcher on March 2.  We gathered valuable information regarding the potential commercialization of projects from this technology as well as details on the opportunities this patent has to offer. The market is currently not competitive as no one has managed to commercialize the technology. Most of the biofuel production companies using  cyanobacteria photosynthesis go often times out of business as the operation cost from the chemical processes is important. The professor repeatedly emphasized that this patent was an enabling technology. Therefore, we cannot directly use it to develop any final products but rather take advantage of it in any transitional process that will be needed to develop our prototype. The professor asserted that ...

In week 6, our group, Team A, decided to weigh our options with the two patents we had. The first patent is a greywater reuse system that filters water using sunlight and uses that heated water to regulate the temperature of a building. The second patent is an efficient method to utilize cyanobacteria to produce biofuels. We recently talked with the cyanobacteria professor, and he was very excited to talk with us. He actually advised to take a different route with the commercialization of the patent, and go for a sort of energy consulting business that helps other companies that produce biofuels. Our patent would give them a better method to produce their biofuels. Though this idea sounds intriguing, we are not sure how likely we could accomplish something like that because we lack the qualifications to give advice on biofuels, so we would have to hire people to do that. However, after talking to the greywater reuse system professor, we became very eager to pursue this patent....