NEXFOG

Most grease-management installations still rely on passive, gravity-based traps. In high-rise cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo, underground installation can be physically impossible or legally prohibited. Basement access, pumped discharge and narrow entrances further complicate installation in existing buildings. Food-service and hospitality premises need reliable FOG removal despite variable inlet loads, while fixed maintenance schedules increase service visits and give operators limited visibility of separator condition. These constraints raise operating costs and the risk of discharge non-compliance.

When fats, oils and grease enter sewers, blockages disrupt municipal networks, increase pumping energy demand and reduce wastewater-treatment-plant efficiency. Building owners, facility managers, grease-management providers and sewer operators need separation equipment that fits confined technical rooms, can be monitored remotely and connects to building management systems. The need extends beyond Singapore to other dense Asian cities and urban markets in Europe and the Middle East, including healthcare and industrial facilities upgrading their wastewater practices.

NEXFOG combines rotationally moulded polymer tank modules under 800 mm wide with interlocking connections for single-technician assembly in confined rooms. Chemical-resistant materials, integrated pumping and hydraulics support above-ground, pumped-discharge installations. Its active physical-chemical process uses automated emulsion-breaker dosing, feedback-regulated purge cycles and flow control. Embedded firmware, IoT sensors, edge computing and ML-based predictive maintenance support condition-based servicing. BACnet, Modbus and MQTT interfaces enable building-management integration, with cybersecurity for building-level operational technology.

ROTO ECO d.o.o. (Slovenia) coordinates system architecture, modular tank design, interface integration, industrial production, quality assurance and scale-up, and will manufacture the product for EU and international markets. Hidrostation (Portugal) develops the separation process, dosing, pumping, controls and IoT functions, and will apply its process platform in wastewater and industrial-effluent markets. Gohmen (Singapore) provides requirements and operational data from its installed base, co-designs for local buildings, hosts commercial-building pilots, validates performance against Singapore discharge requirements and will lead Southeast Asian commercialisation.

The platform targets over 90% FOG separation despite varying inlet concentrations, 40–60% fewer FOG-related sewer blockages per installation, over 50% fewer maintenance visits and measurable gains in downstream treatment energy efficiency. A Singapore pilot validated to TRL 7 will support a manufacturable product and an IoT data-services layer with recurring-revenue potential for deployment across Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

Over 30 months, the partners will establish requirements from Gohmen’s Singapore installations and structure baseline data on FOG loads, maintenance, failure modes and sensor readings. Gohmen leads this work with ROTO ECO d.o.o. and Hidrostation. Together they will specify discharge and building constraints, including basement access, pumped discharge and door widths; set separation, module-size and building-system interface targets; and map requirements in Singapore and comparable Hong Kong, Tokyo and EU markets.

ROTO ECO d.o.o. will lead parametric tank-module design, interlocking connections, research into chemical-resistant polymers and processing methods, and hardware production. Hidrostation will lead development of emulsion-breaker dosing, feedback-regulated purge and flow, pumping and hydraulics, embedded controls and IoT sensing. Gohmen will check the designs against installation needs. Bench-scale tests will advance the process from TRL 4 to TRL 5 before system integration and validation, including building-system interoperability and operational-technology security.

The partners will assemble the integrated system and run pilots in Singapore commercial buildings hosted by Gohmen, including validation to TRL 7. They will compare separation, maintenance and blockage outcomes with baseline data, test against local discharge requirements and assess downstream energy effects. Finally, they will refine quality assurance and manufacturing scale-up and prepare the product and IoT data-services offering for commercial rollout.

• ROTO ECO d.o.o. 🇸🇮 SI (project coordinator)
• Gohmen 🇸🇬 SG
• Hidrostation 🇵🇹 PT