Contests

Competition between innovators is the fuel we use to foster the best innovative solutions.

The Department of National Defence’s (DND) Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program is calling innovators on to propose and develop solutions that provide integrated energy, water and waste management systems for the CAF’s Relocatable Temporary Camps (RTC) deployed in national and international operations.

Congratulations to Circular City! The team took home a $2M prize for the best entry in the final round of the Pop up city contest. The three finalists, Circular City, Autonomous Resilient Community Systems (ARCS) and Integrated Utility Management System (IUMS), showcased their integrated system solutions for relocatable temporary camps (RTC) in Suffield, Alberta in August 2023. All contestants brought unique approaches and demonstrated impressive technology, with energy, water and wastewater savings. Learn more about some of their technological advancements:

Transcript

Narrator
The Pop up city contest challenged innovators to build more efficient, integrated and green energy, water and waste management solutions for camps used by the Canadian Armed Forces.

Maj Guillaume Hébert
Once power generation, water production and waste management is taken care of, I would say that the heart of the camps is well taken of, and the soldiers that are employed can actually do their job.

Aarya Shahsavar
The problem we're actually solving is "how do you support a soldier or person anywhere on earth, completely off grid, ultimately, and so what we did was we looked at that problem by taking a step up and looking at how the outputs from one system aren't exactly a waste is some categories, it could be an input to something else.

Mark Canning
We designed it specifically to reduce consumables, maintenance, startup time, and other aspects that would allow us to take up the least space, and also operate as easily as possible.

Dr. Ramona Pristavita
We have another technology named, which is taking any dirty water, whether it is black water, grey water, and converting it into portable water and non-portable water.

Raymond Rand
We are replacing the power generated by the diesel fuel, with power generated by the solar devices and the wind devices.

Aarya Shahsavar
Basically what we've developed here is the first step towards an actual sustainable long term solution that involves circularizing multiple aspects that help support troops in the field, but also has applications beyond defence and into civilian applications.

Maj Guillaume Hébert
The smaller the footprint, the more efficient you are, the better it is for both the local resources and the employed forces.

Read more about the Pop up city Contest finalists and their show stopping technology on the Defence and Security Science blog.

Round 3 winners

The IDEaS Pop up city Contest awarded three $1.5 million funding agreements to Circular City, Autonomous Resilient Community Systems (ARCS) and Integrated Utility Management System (IUMS) to build their prototype of a better energy, water and waste management system for relocatable temporary camps (RTC) used by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

The top contestants were selected from six finalists through a pitch event held to determine the most promising technologies. Check out the Pop up city Contest pitch event video to see the highlights or read the Round 3 winners announcement new release.

Integrated Solution Title	Team Members	Technical Domain
Circular City – Integrated Power, Water, and Waste Solution for Relocatable Temporary Camps	Innocorps Research Corporation	Water
	Pop Up City Inc.	Energy
	Southern Alberta Institute of Technology	Solid Waste
	Solution-Darcom Innovations Inc	Liquid Waste
SNC-Lavalin Integrated Utility Management System (IUMS)	SNC-Lavalin Inc	Waste
	Reveau Technologies and Solutions Inc	Water
	Ascent System Technologies	Energy
	Growing Greener Innovations, Inc. (GGI)	Energy
	Rival Lab Inc	Energy
	NOMAD Micro Homes	Waste
	BluMetric Environmental Inc.	Water
Autonomous Resilient Community Systems (ARCS)	Terragon Environmental Technologies Inc.	Waste
	Terragon Environmental Technologies Inc.	Water
	Tugliq Energie Co.	Energy

Round 2 winners

Each winner has received a $50,000 prize and an invitation to join an integrated team to participate in the Round 3 pitch event. See below for a full list of Round 2 winners.

Integrated Solution Title	Team Members	Technical Domain
Circular City – Integrated Power, Water, and Waste Solution for Relocatable Temporary Camps	Innocorps Research Corporation	Water
	Pop Up City Inc.	Energy
	Southern Alberta Institute of Technology	Solid Waste
	Solution-Darcom Innovations Inc	Liquid Waste
SNC-Lavalin Integrated Utility Management System (IUMS)	SNC-Lavalin Inc	Waste
	Reveau Technologies and Solutions Inc	Water
	Ascent System Technologies	Energy
	Growing Greener Innovations, Inc. (GGI)	Energy
	Rival Lab Inc	Energy
	NOMAD Micro Homes	Waste
	BluMetric Environmental Inc.	Waste
DEW Camp Sustainment (DCS) System	DEW Engineering and Development ULC – Team Lead	Energy
	Osorno Enterprises Inc.	Liquid waste
	Innocorps Research Corporation	Water
	Southern Alberta Institute of Technology	Solid Waste
Autonomous Resilient Community Systems (ARCS)	Terragon Environmental Technologies Inc.	Waste
	Terragon Environmental Technologies Inc.	Water
	Tugliq Energie Co.	Energy
Robust, Efficient Solutions for Pop Up City	ATCO Frontec Ltd.	Water
	ATCO Frontec Ltd.	Waste
	ATCO Frontec Ltd.	Energy
Technologically Efficient Solutions for Pop Up City	ATCO Frontec Ltd.	Water
	ATCO Frontec Ltd.	Waste
	ATCO Frontec Ltd.	Energy

Round 1 winners

Congratulations to our Round 1 winners! Each winner received a $10,000 prize and was invited to participate in Round 2 to present their innovative solution at an integration partnering event.

Technical Domain	Proposal title	Company Name
Energy	Autonomous Mobile Energy System	0939292 B.C. LTD. (Ascent Systems Technologies)
Energy	Augmented Combined Heat and Power	1232404 B.C. LTD
Energy	Multi-Fuel Generator	2533609 Ontario Inc. (Teznic)
Energy	ATCO Pop Up City Energy Solution: Transportable Hybrid Microgrid	ATCO Frontec Ltd.
Energy	LPWAN Monitoring for Deployed Camps – Real Time Operational Analysis for Efficiency Gains	CityKinect Inc
Energy	DEW RTC Cooling, Heating, and Electrical Management System (CHEMS)	DEW Engineering and Development ULC
Energy	Electricity generation from any heat source with external heat engines	Ekstera Inc.
Energy	Deployable Modular Micro Grid System	Frobisher Energy Services LTD.
Energy	High-Efficiency Modular DC-Coupled Microgrid for Military Camp	Governors of University of Alberta
Energy	Grengine™ Power System	Growing Greener Innovations, Inc. (GGI)
Energy	The Tri-fuel power generation and energy storage system – using Hydrogen Diesel and Natural Gas	Orbital Farm Inc.
Energy	SEM Camp	Pop Up City Inc.
Energy	Modular, off the grid, power generator that operates on temperature differential	Proteus Systems Inc.
Energy	Hybrid low-Inertia Turbine Storage System (HITTS)	Rival-lab
Energy	SHES – Smart Hybrid Energy System	Ryerson University (BeTOP)
Energy	Hybrid Solar System Energy Solution with Heat Storage and Recovery	Solar Photonics Inc.
Energy	Advanced Integrated Offgrid Energy Platform	Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
Energy	Microréseau hybride – Intégration d'énergie renouvelable modulable	Tugliq Energie S.A.R.F
Energy	LiMO – Less in More Out	WM Design Solutions Inc.
Waste	ATCO Pop Up City Waste Solution: Advanced Modular Wastewater Treatment System	ATCO Frontec Ltd.
Waste	Mobile Wastewater Treatment Plant (MWWTP)	BluMetric Environmental Inc.
Waste	Salle de Filtration Ecologique	Darcom Innovations Inc.
Waste	Electrochemical Processing Technologies	1232404 B.C. LTD
Waste	Sedna: High efficiency containerized treatment of RTC wastewater	Eyes of the Shepherdess Inc.
Waste	SMARTCYCLE Wastewater Treatment and Reuse	HCT Sustainables Limited
Waste	Conversion of wet and dry waste streams to energy and clean water using Supercritical water oxidation technology.	Linden Water Inc.
Waste	NOMAD Modular Sewer Treatment (NOMAD MST)	NOMAD Micro Homes Inc.
Waste	Containerized mobile packaged sewage treatment plant with sludge collection system, and integrated solar power.	Osorno Enterprises Inc.
Waste	Wastewater Management Solution	SNC-Lavalin Inc.
Waste	Waste and Waste-Water Recycling System	Solar Photonics Inc.
Waste	Remote Ecological Waste Upgrade and Recovery System	Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
Waste	Integrated Solid and Liquid Waste Treatment Solution	Terragon Environmental Technologies Inc.
Waste	Closed-loop waste and wastewater treatment	University of Waterloo
Water	Potable Water replenishment from waste water	11680136 Canada Inc
Water	ATCO Pop Up City Water Solution: Modular Fixed Film Wastewater Treatment System	ATCO Frontec Ltd.
Water	Hybrid Solar-Thermal Membrane Distillation Process for Water Recycling and Reuse for RTCs	Concordia University
Water	Comprehensive water treatment technology using spent coffee grounds	Governors of University of Alberta
Water	Reducing supplied potable water for RTCs through enhanced water recovery and direct potable reuse of wastewater	Innocorps Research Corporation
Water	Reduction of water usage by treating RTC black water using Supercritical water oxidation technology	Linden Water Inc.
Water	Novel Electrocoagulation Approach for Greywater Treatment to Reduce Potable Water Requirements	Terragon Environmental Technologies Inc.
Water	Integrated Scalable Renewable Powered Water Treatment Systems	TMBNExtrados Inc
Water	Water Recycling Hydrogels for Portable Water Management	University of PEI

The challenge

A contest to develop integrated utilities management systems

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) must be ready to deploy on short notice, in any climate and for prolonged periods. The CAF presently relies on Relocatable Temporary Camps (RTCs) for its deployments that sustain personnel through demanding operational and environmental conditions.

The Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program is calling on innovators to propose and develop solutions that provide integrated energy, water and waste management systems for the CAF’s RTCs deployed in national and international operations.

The “Pop up city” contest is a multi-phased contest for innovators to propose and develop reliable, energy efficient, integrated and scalable energy, water and waste management systems for RTCs. Contests are a competitive means of finding innovative solutions and awarding prizes to the best solutions derived from the innovation community. Specifically, this Contest is seeking solutions designed to manage the energy, water and waste needs of a 150 to 1,500-person RTC, operating in a temperate climate zone.

Contest challenge objectives

The objectives of the Pop up City Contest are to:

Stimulate the innovation and development of solutions that significantly reduce RTC fuel and water inputs, and waste outputs, while maintaining specified performance capacities.
Build on Canadian strengths to develop solutions that achieve a reduction of current fuel and water input and waste output by the following specific targets:
1. at least a 33% reduction in the fuel supplied to the RTCs;
2. at least a 33% reduction of the current potable water supplied to the RTCs; and
3. at least a 33% reduction in the solid and liquid waste requiring disposal from the RTCs.

Desired outcomes and considerations

Inefficiencies in current practices lead to a higher requirement for fuel and water resupply and waste removal. This has the knock-on effect of greatly increasing the transport logistics during operations. DND/CAF believe that significant gains in the efficiencies of RTC utilities systems would have an overall beneficial impact on deployed operations. In addition to making better use of known technologies, this may be achieved both by the introduction of innovative technologies, and by combining these technologies into a single, integrated system for RTC utilities. Scalable and transportable solutions are needed that minimize purchasing requirements, transportation costs and logistical demands. The Pop up city contest is being issued to the Canadian innovation community to address this.

Desired outcomes

Integrated solutions for the management of energy, waste and water for RTCs are expected to deliver the following desired outcomes:

designed to supply and manage given per capita requirements for energy and water consumption, and waste generation;
designed to minimize RTC fuel and water input and waste output;
designed with secure centralized control, capable at a minimum of monitoring energy and water consumption;
scalable for RTCs accommodating from 150 to 1,500 persons;
designed for continuous operation over a 12-month period using the sample climate data provided;
transportable in standard 20-foot (6.1 m) intermodal containers; and
designed for durability and high reliability, both in transport and in operation.

How it works

The contest consists of four competitive rounds that contestants will pass through for a chance to win the grand prize of $2.0 million. Each round was designed to progress towards the development of a functioning and testable prototype integrated solution, capable of delivering the desired outcomes of the contest.

Description of image

Round 1 Individual solutions

Submission of proposals for each technical domain
Contestant eligibility established
Expert evaluation
Up to 10 Contestants for each technical domain to receive a $10,000 grant to continue to Round 2

Round 2 Integrated Solutions

Grant recipients from Round 1 continue
Partnering event
Submission of integrated solutions
Expert evaluation
Up to 10 Semi-finalist teams to receive a $50,000 grant to continue to Round 3

Round 3 PITCH & Prototype Development

Grant recipients from Round 2 continue
Pitch event
Expert evaluation
Up to 3 finalist teams eligible for a contribution of up to $1,500,000 for the development of a prototype and to continue to Round 4

Round 4 PROTOTYPE Testing

Contribution recipients from Round 3 continue
Testing of prototypes
Technical evaluation
Selection of grand prize winner
Grand prize of $2,000,000

For more information, contact the contest team at: IDEaSContests.IDEeSConcours@forces.gc.ca

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Pop up city: Integrating energy, water and waste management systems for deployed camps