How two innovators won S$1 million each for tackling climate change with breakthrough ideas

Picture this: a sweltering 36°C day in Singapore, yet buildings remain comfortably cool without air conditioning. Meanwhile, hydrogen fuel powers the city’s transport network as safely and efficiently as traditional fossil fuels. This vision of sustainable urban living moved a step closer to reality on May 7, when two groundbreaking climate technologies secured S$1 million (US$735,000) of catalytic funding each at The Liveability Challenge 2025 Grand Finale.

Projects by Singapore-based company Krosslinker and Canadian startup Ayrton Energy emerged as winners from a record field of 1,200 submissions spanning over 100 countries. Krosslinker’s zero-energy aerogel coating promises to reduce building temperatures around the clock, while Ayrton Energy’s innovation makes hydrogen storage and transport up to 50 per cent more cost-effective than current methods.

Presented by Temasek Foundation and organised by Eco-Business, the competition’s eighth edition showcased the most diverse pool of sustainability innovations to date. Mr Ng Boon Heong, executive director and CEO of the foundation, highlighted how both technologies address real-world sustainability challenges while offering commercially viable pathways to scale. Six other finalists also impressed the judges, with advances ranging from cooling wearables to “AI-driven, zero-waste” fashion design, demonstrating the breadth of climate innovation emerging globally.

“AT TEMASEK FOUNDATION, WE BELIEVE IN A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH BOLD INNOVATION. WITH OUR CATALYTIC FUNDING, WE SUPPORT VISIONARY COMPANIES LIKE KROSSLINKER AND AYRTON ENERGY IN BRINGING BREAKTHROUGH CLIMATE SOLUTIONS TO LIFE FOR THE BENEFIT OF GENERATIONS TO COME.”

– MR NG BOON HEONG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CEO, TEMASEK FOUNDATION

AN AFFORDABLE ZERO-ENERGY COOLING SOLUTION

Krosslinker’s ability to cool buildings without using any energy won the Cool Earth track of the competition. Co-founder and CEO Dr Gayathri Natarajan is no stranger to the challenges of urban heat, having grown up in India and completed her PhD in chemical and biomolecular engineering in Singapore.

The company’s high-performance aerogel paint works round the clock – reflecting sunlight, blocking external heat and radiating absorbed heat away, even at night. With extremely low thermal conductivity and high emissivity, it can be applied to a wide range of surfaces, including metal and concrete. The coating is fully compatible with building exteriors and could lower indoor heat ingress, potentially reducing electricity bills by 10 per cent while improving comfort.

“Singapore is a high-density, high-energy-demand urban environment – exactly the kind of place that needs innovative cooling,” said Dr Gayathri. “The Liveability Challenge helped us demonstrate that Singapore can lead in urban sustainability not just as a testbed, but as a global reference point for tropical resilience technologies.” She noted that cooling accounts for nearly 30 per cent of electricity consumption in Singapore buildings, costing over S$1.5 billion annually. Globally, over 1.2 billion people lack access to affordable cooling.

After a successful trial in Abu Dhabi that demonstrated surface temperature reductions of up to 30°C, Krosslinker is preparing for real-world trials across infrastructure and logistics sectors in the third quarter of this year, beginning with Singapore. With the S$1 million award and S$100,000 from the Octave Well-being Economy Fund – alongside approximately S$1.7 million in seed funding – the startup plans to scale production, deploy pilots, gather data and move towards broader adoption. The long-term goal is to integrate its aerogel-based coatings into building codes and green certifications, especially in tropical and emerging markets. It is also developing an aerogel materials platform for use in fire safety coatings, cold chain logistics and refrigeration.

“WE WANT TO CREATE ADVANCES THAT DON’T COME WITH A TRADE-OFF BETWEEN COST, CARBON AND ACCESS. OUR AIM IS TO MAKE CLIMATE RESILIENCE AFFORDABLE, SCALABLE AND – ABOVE ALL –ACCESSIBLE TO THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST.”

– DR GAYATHRI NATARAJAN, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, KROSSLINKER

MAKING HYDROGEN POWER FEASIBLE

Did you know that hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements in our atmosphere? It emits only water vapour and heat when used as a fuel. So why isn’t it widely used?

Storage and transportation are major barriers. This low-density gas can leak through tiny cracks, degrade certain metals and must be compressed or liquefied – processes that are costly and energy-intensive.

Ayrton Energy, winner of the Decarbonisation track, recognised that hydrogen’s potential as a clean fuel hinges on solving these fundamental challenges. The company’s breakthrough lies in making hydrogen as straightforward to handle as conventional diesel – while cutting costs by up to 50 per cent.

It achieves this by binding hydrogen to a carrier oil, which can easily absorb and release the gas. Its proprietary e-LOHC (Electrically-Driven Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier) technology allows hydrogen to be stored at room temperature and pressure using existing fuel infrastructure, including tanks, trucks, marine vessels and pipelines.

This safe, stable and cost-effective approach is a game-changer for global climate action – including Singapore, which is exploring hydrogen as a major decarbonisation pathway. “Participating in The Liveability Challenge has been a fantastic experience for Ayrton Energy to gain exposure in target market regions, such as Singapore, and to better understand the region’s challenges around hydrogen distribution and use,” said Dr Brandy Kinkead, CTO and co-founder at Ayrton Energy. “Our goal for a pilot project in Singapore is to demonstrate our technology as a strong approach for long-duration and long-distance hydrogen storage and transportation. Ayrton Energy will store hydrogen in our e-LOHC from a producer outside of Singapore, transport the e-LOHC via marine vessels using existing liquid fuel tanks and release the hydrogen from our system in Singapore for end-use.”

Currently, the cleantech company is partnering with ATCO Gas, the largest natural gas distributor in Alberta, Canada, to scale hydrogen production. It is also collaborating with Hawaii Gas to study the feasibility of using the e-LOHC technology in Hawaii. The company has received strong support from the Canadian government and investors, securing about S$10.9 million in seed financing. Apart from the S$1 million prize money from Temasek Foundation, it has also secured S$100,000 each from the Challenge’s strategic partners Valuence Ventures and TRIREC.

Dr Kinkead said that the team is excited as it prepares to enter a pivotal phase of growth later this year, with the deployment of its first commercial-scale e-LOHC system – a 100x scale-up from earlier field trials.

“OUR FIRST COMMERCIAL-SCALE DEPLOYMENT MARKS A MAJOR MILESTONE FOR AYRTON ENERGY AND THE FUTURE OF SAFE, SCALABLE HYDROGEN LOGISTICS. WE’RE ENERGISED BY THE MOMENTUM AND PROUD TO MOVE FROM DEMONSTRATION TO REAL-WORLD APPLICATION.”

– DR BRANDY KINKEAD, CTO AND CO-FOUNDER, AYRTON ENERGY

A CATALYST FOR CLIMATE CHANGE EFFORTS

Created in 2018 in response to the growing urgency of climate change, rapid urbanisation and resource scarcity, Temasek Foundation’s The Liveability Challenge is a global crowdsourcing platform in accelerating sustainable developments to the market. The foundation has also expanded its catalyst role and established similar challenges to meet regional needs – Climate Impact Innovations Challenge (Indonesia), Net Zero Challenge (Vietnam) and Green Future Innovation Challenge (China). Overall, these efforts have generated approximately S$600 million of further investments, more than 10 times the initial support provided.

Among its success stories is 2020 winner TurtleTree Labs,  a biotechnology company that produces milk without cows using precision fermentation technology. The startup’s lab-grown alternative addresses the dairy industry’s heavy environmental footprint, which includes high greenhouse gas emissions and intensive land and water use. Since securing S$1 million in catalytic funding, TurtleTree Labs has hit several milestones. In November 2024, it partnered with Singapore’s MAD Foods to add its vegan-certified LF+ to oat milk coffee drinks with health-boosting ingredients. In May, TurtleTree Labs made history when its product became the world’s first precision-fermented milk protein to receive a  “no questions” letter from the US Food and Drug Administration for use in food products, paving the way for wider adoption of sustainable dairy alternatives globally.

Judge and director of venture capitalist firm TRIREC Investments Mr Andrew Wong noted the rising calibre of ideas emerging from the climate innovation space. “I witnessed firsthand how the global climate innovation ecosystem is gaining real momentum,” he said. “There’s record-breaking participation, impactful capital on the table and a new wave of high-quality finalists putting forward very compelling advances.”

Mr Wong added that strategic partners like TRIREC play a vital role in supporting the next phase of innovation. “We can help push these promising technologies closer to commercialisation – from the lab to the world,” he said.

As climate threats rise, scalable breakthroughs like those from Krosslinker and Ayrton Energy offer hope. Initiatives like The Liveability Challenge can be a catalytic platform for real-world impact and move the world closer to meeting its decarbonisation goals.