THEN AND NOW “Now, if I get in touch with a water quality manager, I no longer have to explain who we are”, says Hans

Wouters, CEO of BlueLeg Monitor, a company from Sneek. A flood of publicity swept in his direction

when he won the Water Alliance Innovation Stimulation Award (WIS) in 2014. In the meantime, that

has opened doors to international markets. Hydrowashr, the most recent WIS winner, has also already

started to feel the PR effects of the award. How are things with the winners now? And what about the

companies that have come in a close second these past years? What type of business development

ambition do those entrepreneurs represent? A brief tour of four innovative water technology

companies.

FOUR WIS AWARD PARTICIPANTS

take the floor

“I AM WORKING

TO ACHIEVE

A PERSONAL

DREAM”

“PRODUCING

CERAMIC

MEMBRANES

OUT OF METAL”

To meet the brand new winner of the 2015 WIS Award, we journey to Leeuwarden, where the young company Hydrowashr is based. Hydrowashr developed an appliance for both cleansing and drying hands after toilet use, employing an innovative technique for both. And because it works very quickly, it is energy and water efficient. Award committee chairperson Cees Buisman (scientific director of Wetsus) praised the appliance’s combination of functionality with design, even going so far as to call designer and company director Jan Melein ‘the Steve Jobs of the water technology branch’. “The timing of this award is perfect”, said Tineke Willems of Hydrowashr, “because we are now ready to enter into the commercial market”. In the absence of Melein, Willems accepted the award on behalf of the winner, at a ceremony during the WaterLink symposium in early 2015. “It is tremendous that with this award we receive a vote of confidence and a whole lot of promotional support.”

Later, via videolink, Hydrowashr’s director, Melein, added, “As an entrepreneur, I am working to achieve a personal dream. That dream is that ten years from now we have a factory where many people work and where we produce ten thousands of hydrowashrs each year.”

A born entrepreneur

Where someone wins, there’s also someone in second place. In 2015 that second place went to a company called Metalmembranes - also based in Leeuwarden - co-founded by

businessman Hans-Henk Wolters. Wolters is by origin a chemical and process engineer, inventor, innovator, networker and technician, but actually more than anything a born entrepreneur. He has multiple businesses, such as ECM Technologies (specialized in innovative solutions for the electrochemical

using animations) and Metalmembranes. “Metalmembranes has developed a method for producing ceramic membranes out of metal”, Wolters explains. “The metal is transformed into a ceramic material via an electrochemical process.” The membranes have pores nanometres in diameter. The thin membranes, according to Wolters, are flexible, have high fluxes and are less quick to foul due to a light electrical current applied to them.”

FOUR WIS AWARD PARTICIPANTS

take the floor

“IT’S GOTTEN

A LOT EASIER

TO MAKE

CONTACT

WITH OUR

POTENTIAL

CLIENTS”

It’s an impressive group of companies that recently took part in the WIS Award, and they’ve now already received quite a bit of publicity as a result of that participation. For the 2014 winner, we travel to Sneek, where Hans Wouters, CEO of BlueLeg Monitor gladly looks back with us at the past year and a half. “No one knew us two years ago”, says Wouters. “It’s very difficult to knock on the doors of water managers with a new product and they don’t know you. By taking part in the WIS Award, we suddenly received a lot of name recognition, and because of that it’s gotten a lot easier to make contact with our potential clients.”

What is the innovation that won BlueLeg Monitor the WIS Award? It was IQ Water, an app that lets you test water quality

using your mobile phone. In the wake of all the publicity, however, BlueLeg Monitor also succeeded in bringing the so-called ‘WISP-3’ into the spotlight. The WISP-3 is a spectrometer which determines in a very simple way - based on a water colour analysis - the presence of algae, including blue-green algae, the concentration of sediment, the concentration of dissolved organic matter and water clarity. The hand-held device looks like a laser gun and can generate very large amounts of data in a very short period of time. The market potential looks good, not least because BlueLeg Monitor has been very active in marketing the invention. For example, company representatives went to the Singapore

International Water Week in 2014, with the support of the Water Alliance. At the event the Singaporean water company PUB turned out to be interested in the innovation. “The company produces drinking water from surface water and therefore manages a number of freshwater catchments”, according to Wouters. So they are very attentive to the quality of water in the reservoirs. We met their people before, at the IFAT trade show in Munich (mentioned elsewhere in this magazine, ed.). As a result of the meeting at IFAT we were allowed to present a workshop and demonstrations of our WISP-3 in Singapore. Because people got a chance to work with the device themselves, our message got across much better. The demonstration on the edge of Marina Bay in the heart of Singapore was especially impressive. There’s a good chance that contracts will come out of it.”

Note from the editors: Wouters recently demonstrated his ‘WISP’ again during a Water Alliance business development mission to Akron, Ohio (USA). More about that trip can be read elsewhere in this magazine. A video-report can be viewed on the ‘WaterProof TV’ YouTube channel, accessible via the website:

www.wateralliance.nl

Demo in Singapore

FOUR WIS AWARD PARTICIPANTS

take the floor

“HIGH VALUE

ON FREE

THINKING

AND SEIZING

OPPORTUNITIES”

It’s interesting that innovations which in one way or another allow water quality to be tested quicker and more easily tend to do well in the market. Companies like Capilix and Biotrack – also members of the Water Alliance – have scored highly with these types of technologies, and BlueLeg Monitor and the earlier- mentioned Metalmembranes are involved in these. And new methods are constantly being invented and tested. For example, in 2015 the Province of Friesland awarded BlueLeg Monitor a subsidy for the ‘EcoWatch’ project. The Water Alliance acted as intermediary and provided guidance. The project, developed in partnership with

WaterInsight BV, the INCAS3 Foundation and the Noorderzijlvest regional water board, seeks to develop an innovative tool for remote, real-time monitoring of surface water quality. “With EcoWatch, freshwater supply can be monitored cost-effectively for the best possible management of surface water quality”, says Hans Wouters. “It will give water managers such as the water boards the ability to continuously monitor water quality.”

EcoWatch will be tested in the summer of 2015 at Paterswoldse Lake (more on this project in the ‘Short News’ section, ed.).

Metalmembranes received a subsidy for the ‘Better Wetter’ project. Sybrand Metz, of the Leeuwarden-based company, explains, “Taking water samples and then analysing them in the laboratory is very time consuming. It can be anywhere from two days to three weeks before the results become available. With the use of our membranes, that can all be done in just a couple of hours.” The Better Wetter project is also a good example of the way companies in and around the WaterCampus collaborate, because Metalmembranes’ metallic

WaterCampus firm. The Aquascope, furthermore, uses mircochips from Microdish, which is also based at the WaterCampus.

Sustainable investments

Back to the WIS. Winning the award helps, that much is clear. But the

companies themselves are also expected to take a proactive role when it comes to conquering new markets. BlueLeg Monitor is an excellent example in this respect. Another good example is the company Pathema. This company located in Goirle (in the south of the Netherlands) won second place in the 2014 WIS with its IVG-C CoolWater technology, offering a complete solution for managing cooling water without the use of any chemicals. “The product combines all the techniques available in the water branch for exploiting a cooling tower or evaporative condenser without the use of chemicals and with low water use and reduced power consumption”, says Pathema Director Mark Boeren. When asked where he sees the greatest opportunities and potentials for Pathema, he replies, “We want to service our industrial target group

with a hybrid model. The intention is to sell and rent industrial water treatment technology and provide implementation that is completely care-free for the client. That way, industrial cooling and process water can be used without the addition of chemicals, thus saving both water and energy. These products offer sustainable investments for our clients.” And his biggest drive? “I come from an entrepreneurial family that placed very high value on free thinking and seizing opportunities. Passion for our products and opportunities for a more sustainable society are my reasons as a businessman to keep on pursuing progress and get our technology into the market. We want to help reduce water scarcity in harmony with the environment and with a financial return.”

FIVE YEARS OF WATER