WssTP European Water Innovation Award 2015 for best practices

Winners from left to right: Resolute Marine, SansOx, BWA-Water and CARDPool. Picture: WSSTP

Four small and medium sized companies (SME’s) recently received the WssTP European Water Innovation Award 2015. The award was handed out in Brussels, Belgium on 25 June by WssTP European technology platform for water. The winning small companies are BWA from the Netherlands, Resolute Marine Energy from Ireland, Sansox Oy from Finland and CardPool from France.

The WssTP European Water Innovation Award supports the economic opportunities for the European water sector and especially the small and medium enterprises in Europe. The innovations of the four winning SMEs were identified, as the best practices in their field of application with high market potential.

Finescreen technology
BWA received the award for their finescreen technology and valorisation of removed waste stream. By using finescreens, the biological downstream process at a wastewater treatment plant, is relieved, resulting in a significant reduction of the energy consumption, the produced excess sludge the use of chemicals for sludge dewatering. BWA developed a process to recover cellulose from the influent – containing used toilet paper – at a waste water treatment plant. The screened material, which is extracted from the raw waste water (influent), consists to a major part of cellulose, coming from used toilet paper. In particular, this cellulose has a potential high value. In several projects BWA, along with partners, developed possible valorisation routes and applicable technology, while monitoring the impact of the finescreen technology in the downstream process.

Desalination on wave-energy
Resolute Marine Energy from Ireland is commercializing the world’s first wave-driven desalination system (trade name: Wave2OTM) that operates solely on mechanical power and thus requires no connections to an electrical grid. Wave2OTM is tailored to the needs of coastal communities in water scarce areas where a solution to persistent water shortages is urgently needed and where Wave2OTM has the unique advantage of filling a large gap in the market between utility-scale and micro-scale fresh water production systems. Wave2OTM consists of several wave energy converters deployed close to shore that pressurize seawater which is piped ashore to drive a seawater reverse-osmosis desalination system. The brine (saline byproduct of the RO process) is fully diluted before it is returned to sea and thus does not harm the environment.

More effective treatment
SansOx is a startup company from Finland that provides optimal oxygenation solutions for several branches of water treatment such as drinking water production, fish farming and industrial water processing. This year, SansOx was awarded for its SaoxFuge technology which works on the principal that a spiral flow in the tube creates a strong centrifugal force. This causes the particles of the material to become organized into layers according to their sediment order. Particles in liquid become organized according to their specific gravity so that heavier particles move towards the outer screen of the tube. Saoxfuge is a big step towards more effective water treatment and energy savings. More information.

Disinfection without chemicals
CARDPool is an independent startup focused on the development, design and manufacture of processing equipment for microbiological decontamination of fluids. It specialises in the development of composite materials (ceramics based) with super germicides surfaces, which currently represents a technological breakthrough without parallel in the field of microbiological treatment. After three years of research and 2 years of full-scale validation, CARDPool designed and manufactured in France the NEWATER system for the decontamination of water SPA. This system disinfects the water without adding any chemicals, without any additional power consumption and without any regular procedure; the new system significantly differs from all other techniques currently applied.