A pioneering plan for a portable biodiesel manufacturing unit has collected the top prize in the 2010 eChallenge, a South Australian competition to encourage entrepreneurship.

The University of Adelaide's Entrepreneurs' Challenge (eChallenge) - run by The Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC) - is an annual business planning contest that offers aspiring entrepreneurs the chance of global exposure as well as a share in $50,000 in cash and prizes.

Teams of between two and six people, including at least one tertiary-enrolled student in South Australia (including TAFE), compete in the eChallenge to develop a business plan for a new, previously unfunded concept.

Announced at the 2010 eChallenge Awards Dinner, the first prize was awarded to South Australian Biofuels, a team that has developed a portable biodiesel manufacturing unit which uses the latest in processing technology to produce diesel fuel.

The SA Biofuels unit utilises unique ultrasonic wave creators to boost the efficiency of production. One unit, which can produce about five million litres of biodiesel per year, will fit on a 6x4 trailer or the deck of a small truck.

As well as $10,000 in cash, the winning team receives $2000 worth of consulting services from KMT Partners and Madderns Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys plus a $650 worth of products from Corporate Express and – best of all – a $100 gift basket from Haigh’s Chocolates.

Second prize went to Magic Vision, which focuses on mobile applications with Augmented Reality, a technology that merges virtual computer generated imagery and real-world environments in real time.

Third prize was awarded to Hibern8, an initiative to improve the energy efficiency in industry by creating a set of software tools that model power flows in industrial plants, thus enabling designers to easily investigate the impact of their design decisions on the power consumption of their plant.

Two eChallenge teams, Easelock representing The University of Adelaide and Magic Vision representing The University of SA, will compete against a national field for the John Heine Entrepreneurial Challenge, on December 9-10. The John Heine winner will represent Australian at the international competition, Venture Labs Investment Competition (formerly Moot Corp), in Austin, Texas.

Details about eChallenge teams can be found at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/echallenge/teams2010/

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