Making money out of wastewater: Falling Walls young innovator 2014

Dr Dyllon Randall presented a profit-making opportunity for wastewater treatment at the Falling Walls Lab competition in Berlin in November 2014. Randall won third place, the second year in a row a UCT graduate has been placed third in the prestigious international competition.

The title of Randall's talk was 'Breaking the wall of wastewater using Eutectic Freeze Crystallisation'. Valuable resources can be recovered from wastewater using Randall's technology, thus also reducing the environmental impact of this 'waste'.

At the final of the competition, 100 young scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators from 34 countries had three minutes each to present their research projects, ideas and initiatives concerning social challenges and the big issues of the future.

The three winners were selected by a high-calibre international jury from academia and industry under the direction of Professor Carl Henrik Heldin, chairman of the Nobel Foundation, and Dr Martin Sonnenschein, managing director of Central Europe at AT Kearney.

As one of the three "Falling Walls Young Innovators of 2014", Dr Randall presented his talk at the Falling Walls Conference in front of around 600 guests.

Randall graduated from UCT with his PhD in 2010, and worked as a research officer in the Department of Chemical Engineering before joining Aurecon, a global consulting company.

Said Randall: "Participating in the Falling Walls Lab competition was an amazing opportunity to meet like-minded people who also want to make a difference when it comes to some of the most pressing issues facing society."

This story first appeared in the January 2015 edition of the Research at UCT newsletter. Sign up for our newsletters to keep up-to-date with the latest news and research at UCT.