Generation Start-up: FortyGuard looks to mitigate ramifications of extreme heat on cities
20 June, 2021
Abu Dhabi-based FortyGuard is tackling among the region’s most pressing problems - how to lower surface temperatures through the summer months.
The start-up, which is backed by the emirate's Hub71, is offering solutions to decrease the amount of heat made by roads and other surfaces and protect medical of folks in cities and other urban centres.
FortyGuard’s name is inspired by the ozone layer, a region of the atmosphere between 10 kilometres and 40 kilometres above the planet earth, which protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet rays.
Similarly, the business aims to protect cities from excessive heat through products that also align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals on reducing emissions to avoid global warming.
“FortyGuard is more of an urban cooling system that uses city data to mitigate expanding heat,” says Jihad Sadiq, the founder and director general of the company.
“We have software that guides the strategic keeping our materials to reduce several surface temperatures in a cost-effective manner.”
The business uses data it collects to identify roads and other surfaces that provide off the most heat in Abu Dhabi, creating ambient temperatures to go up. It then applies a particular surface coating to modify heat it emits.
It also relies on artificial intelligence to forecast and simulate city temperatures, and in addition estimate the total amount saved per square metre when surfaces are coated with special materials.
The business offers tailor-made solutions using materials without chemical emissions that meet international safety standards, he says.
The temperature of black asphalt on roads can are as long as 80°C, warming up the air above it and raising heat levels in surrounding areas.
Solutions offered by companies such as for example FortyGuard are increasingly relevant as oil companies all over the world come under pressure from activist investors and governments to reduce their carbon footprint and embrace the shift to completely clean energy.
FortyGuard is currently working with a government entity in Abu Dhabi to recognize the hottest roads in the town. In addition, it intends to offers its services to several clients, including private contractors and other developers.
The start-up expects demand because of its services to grow in the coming year as countries push to lessen emissions to limit global warming consistent with their commitments to the Paris Agreement.
There are potentially 1,300 clients in the UAE in the infrastructure, education, health and property sectors.
“At any open urban surface structure that's exposed to sunlight ... or even isolated industrial operations, FortyGuard can be a solution to mitigate surface urban heat and bring comfort to persons or reduce operational costs,” he says.
The surface coating market in the Middle East was estimated at $9.89 billion in 2019 and is likely to grow further, according to research company Statista.
FortyGuard also intends to bring its answers to Dubai, where roads constitute about 40 % of urban structures.
“If we target those road surfaces, the decrease in temperature [through coating] will be huge” and could contribute towards the city’s drive to attract tourists during summer, he says.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, unveiled the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan earlier this season in a push to transform the emirate and create an interconnected, people-led city that balances community with tourism and modernity with heritage and nature.
Mr Sadiq setup FortyGuard last year after noticing how excessive heat prevented persons from exercising outside during summer.
“I was created here and the thing most of us suffer during summer months is we cannot be out an excessive amount of. I like to run and do athletics but I cannot do this because of the heat that originates from surfaces. It certainly bothered me,” he says.
His solution allows city planners to “maintain the existing structures and fix the problem without disrupting how cities look”.
Once he began to go over the idea, Mr Sadiq found there is a whole lot of enthusiasm.
“Every time we visited the market discussing this, everyone said: ‘How come nobody has discussed this?’”
The company can be educating new clients as much of them are not aware of the option of such technology.
“At gas stations, for example, there are a great number of personnel who work outdoors trying to serve people. If we are able to bring comfort to those persons and clients who are employing those service stations and decrease the temperature during summer, then you bring a significant benefit to those places.”
The company can be working with its legal team and Hub71 to patent its technology.
There is absolutely no other product available that can lower the temperature of a surface “without changing its physical properties, that does not change the color of asphalt and in addition reduces the temperature by 10°C.”
FortyGuard was among 16 start-ups selected to participate Hub71’s latest incentive programme earlier this year.
“Hub71 gave us an extremely generous incentive in order that we can incubate our software and professional technology and this can help us a lot inside our next funding round, which is in October,” says Mr Sadiq.
Start-ups in the Mena region secured $1.03bn in funding this past year, up 13 % compared with 2019, according to data platform Magnitt.
FortyGuard has big plans for future years. It intends to become a $10bn company within the next five years as it forecasts big demand because of its technology over the GCC and far away.
“There is a lot of demand via Saudi Arabia. Now, we are trying to concentrate on whatever pilots we will work on. Hopefully, by the finish of the year, we will have several pilots with the federal government and then, commercially, we are able to be anywhere we wish.”
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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