Surface Modifications and Protection Tech for Toilet Cleaning

OVERVIEW

The Seeker for this Wazoku Crowd Challenge is looking for biodegradable solutions and chemistries, or technological approaches that would reduce the need for frequent toilet cleaning by preventing stains from sticking to the toilet bowl.

Protecting or modifying the surface of a toilet bowl with high repellency or stain resistant solution could help to reduce consumers’ need for frequent cleaning of their toilets. Solvers are asked to provide details of sustainable, consumer-friendly solutions that can prevent restaining and improve the ease of toilet cleaning. Solutions applicable through existing toilet care products and approaches (drop-in solutions) or those that can be easily-applied in a one-step process by consumers are preferred.

Solutions and approaches are invited from adjacent fields, such as surface treatment and material science.

Your IP Rights are protected in this Prize Challenge, the Seeker must award you to obtain them.

The best solution has the opportunity to win the award of $20,000 for meeting all must have solution requirements. The Challenge requires a written proposal to be submitted and Awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the Seeker against the Solution Requirements. To receive an Award, Solvers are required to grant non-exclusive rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution. There is no assignment of IP Rights with this challenge. Solvers will retain all rights to any proposal not Awarded.

The Option: Awarded Solvers have a further option to agree to grant the Seeker an exclusive 90 day option to acquire ownership with respect to all intellectual property rights in their proposal with the commitment by the Seeker to pay a consideration for the transfer of the ownership equal to $10,000. This one-time payment is in addition to the aforementioned award for non-exclusive rights.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on November 11, 2024.

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THE CHALLENGE

Background

Cleaning toilets is still an unpleasant household chore. While there are current toilet cleaning solutions to increase repellency of the toilet bowl surface and to prevent the restaining effect, these tend to be beyond the reach of an ordinary consumer – designed for use at scale in commercial industries, or taking too many steps to be feasible for in-house usage.

Traditional chemical suppliers (BASF, Dow, Evonik, Wacker, etc.) have polymers with repelling characteristics, however these are mostly polyacrylates (e.g. Mirapol® Surf-S 900, Sokalan® CP 10 etc.) and therefore not biodegradable and not of natural origin. Other start-ups disrupting the market may offer sophisticated technologies that can effectively pre-treat or coat a toilet bowl surface. However, the method of application is often highly complex (annealing, radiation curing, or vapor deposition technologies) and is therefore not applicable to the household consumer.

In order to better support the everyday consumer, surface modifications, protections, or chemistries could be developed that can effectively keep the bowl cleaner for longer. Any solution would have to provide avoidance against the multiple stains in toilets (limescale, fecal soils, urine scale, biofilms, sludge, etc.) while being easy to use or apply.

The Challenge

The Seeker is looking for solutions that can prevent/lessen the presence of stains on the toilet bowl, ensure the toilet stays cleaner for longer, and reduce the effort required to clean the bowl.

Your approach or solution should either be able to be used in existing products/approaches (drop-in solution or ingredients to be added) or can be transferred or applied with a special product with an easy application.

Consumer ease of use, application, and reuse is a primary requirement for this Challenge. The technology, solution, chemistry, or method should not contain several steps of cleaning. Ideally, the solution could be compatible with existing toilet care products, including rim blocks, in-tank cubes, or cleaning solutions. A limited pretreatment (cleaning before application, or a primer) and post-application drying may be acceptable to the Seeker, but no other more complex applications would be considered.

In this Challenge, the Seeker is looking beyond classical and known polymers, towards new solutions or novel applications of solutions from different sectors and industries. Technologies and approaches from analogous fields with any kind of surface modifications – for example, car industry, material science, etc. – are also of interest to the Seeker.

Your submission of new surface modification technologies and/or chemistries for toilet care should also be biodegradable, with a preference for renewable chemistries.

SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS

The Seeker is primarily interested in solutions with the potential to meet the following requirements:

Must have:

1. Effective performance of surface protection/modification – describe the theoretical or practical proof of principle of your solution on at least model surfaces (ceramics) and model/artificial/imitation stains​​​
   • Evaluated on effectiveness in preventing stains on the toilet bowl, preventing restaining effect to ensure cleanliness for longer, and reducing the effort required to clean the bowl
   • Providing repellency/avoidance for the following common toilet stains: limescale, fecal soils, urine scale, biofilms, and sludge.
2. Stable in standard toilet care formulations
3. Ease of application – preference is for a drop-in solution/ingredient compatible with existing toilet care products. Alternatively, could be applied via a spray or other very simple treatment.
   • The Seeker’s focus is on a single application step for your solution/chemistry/technology. Limited pre-treatment and post-application drying/embedding may be acceptable.
4. Biodegradable composition of solution, if providing information about chemistries/ingredients
5. The proposed solution should provide the Seeker "freedom to practice” or be available for potential licensing, there should be no third party patents or patent applications preventing the use of the proposed solution in commercial applications.

Nice to have:

1. Proof of concept – data, evidence, or testing analysis of your solution’s applicability in removing the listed bleachable stains.
2. Ecotox – washing detergents have to meet stringent ecotox profiles, ecological & toxicological data as per OECD/EC test guidelines
3. Biodegradability – showing how your solution meets the OECD 301/302 evaluation.
4. Detailed description of the cost of the solution, in the format of cost per kilogram ($/kg) or cost per ton ($/ton) would be given greater consideration by evaluators.
    

Things to Avoid:

If your solution is NOT technological, the Seeker will not consider or award solutions that depend on non-biodegradable ingredients or chemistries.

With changing regulations and registrations regarding the use of some commercial polymers, the Seeker would require details of how your solution – if it utilizes these materials – would meet 2030 standards and NetZero Targets.

Solutions that are overly complex for consumer application, use, or reuse – e.g. those that require multiple steps to apply or require specialized equipment – are not of interest in this Challenge.

Solutions with Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 3-9 are invited.

This Prize Challenge has the following features:

1. Your IP Rights are protected; the Seeker must award you to obtain them.
2. The best solution has the opportunity to win the award of $20,000 USD for meeting all must have solution requirements, as solely determined by the Seeker.
3. Awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the Seeker against the Solution Requirements.
4. To receive an Award, Solvers are required to grant non-exclusive rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution. There is no assignment of IP Rights with this Challenge. Solvers will retain all rights to any proposal not Awarded.
5. The Solver shall specify in their submission whether the Solver wants to participate in “The Option” for an additional potential consideration, or not.

YOUR SUBMISSION

Please login and register your interest, to complete the submission form.

The submitted proposals must be written in English and can include:

1. Participation type – you will first be asked to inform us how you are participating in this challenge, as a Solver (Individual) or Solver (Organization).
2. Option Participation – please confirm if you are willing to participate in the further exclusive IP rights option for an additional potential award consideration.
3. Solution Level - the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your solution.
4. Problem & Opportunity - highlight the innovation in your approach to the Problem, its point of difference, and the specific advantages/benefits this brings (up to 500 words).
5. Solution Overview - detail the features of your solution and how they address the SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS (500 words, there is space to add more in the summary field, and attach supporting data, diagrams, etc).
6. Solution Feasibility – Supporting Information and Rationale, such as references and precedents, that will help the Seeker evaluate and validate the feasibility of the solution (up to 500 words).
7. Experience - Expertise, use cases and skills you or your organization have in relation to your proposed solution (up to 500 words).
8. Solution Risks - any risks you see with your solution and how you would plan for this (up to 500 words).
9. Timeline, capability and costs - describe what you think is required to deliver the solution, estimated time and cost (up to 500 words).
10. Online References - provide links to any publications, articles or press releases of relevance (up to 500 words).

Wazoku encourages the use by Solvers of AI approaches to help develop their submissions, though any produced solely with generative AI are not of interest.

Find out more about participation in Wazoku Crowd Challenges.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on November 11, 2024.

Late submissions will not be considered. 

Your submission will be evaluated by the evaluation team first reviewing the information and content you have submitted at the submission form, with attachments used as additional context to your form submission. Submissions relying solely on attachments will receive less attention from the evaluation team.

After the Challenge submission close date, the Seeker will complete the review process and make a decision with regards to the winning solution(s) according to the timeline in the Challenge header. All Solvers who submit a proposal will be notified about the status of their submissions.