18 minute read
Short Cuts
WaterProof TV: Subscribe now!
Scan this QR-code and get access to amazing content!
HOLLAND WATER ACQUIRES UVIDIS® UVIDIS’S ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT (UV) TECHNOLOGY COMPLEMENTS HOLLAND WATER’S HIGH-QUALITY WATER TECHNOLOGY PORTFOLIO.
Holland Water BV, a market leader in legionella-controlling water technology, acquired the UV activities and trade name Uvidis® from industry peer WaterZorg Friesland BV in March this year. It is Holland Water’s first strategic acquisition since the company merged with investment company OxGreenfield in November 2020.
“Under the leadership of Wietze Boonstra, Uvidis has grown to become a leading provider of ultraviolet waterpurifying solutions in recent years. It is not surprising, as UV technology is ideally suited as a ‘gatekeeper’, a system that removes bio-organisms from drinking water at the entrance to the water plant.” Holland Water has made a name for itself in the past 18 years with its unique Bifipro® legionella control system and has been looking for complementary prevention technology for some time. The water-tech company from Driebergen-Rijsenburg has found that in Uvidis. “We believe that building owners and managers are best served by integrated water management solutions that perfectly match the specific building situation”, said Leo de Zeeuw, water entrepreneur and founder of Holland Water, at the time of the acquisition. “Ultraviolet light, an excellent prevention technology, is an essential addition to the portfolio.”
“Holland Water’s flagship system— the Bifipro®—is highly effective at combating bio-film and legionella through copper and silver ionization, and is definitely the best option for buildings with a structural legionella problem”, stated De Zeeuw in a press release. “However, sites without bacterial overgrowth are more likely to benefit from minimizing contamination risks through preventative water technology such as the Uvidis system. We are excited to be able to offer both options now.”
“We will continue to specialize in water consulting services knowing that Uvidis is in good hands”, said Wietze Boonstra, general manager of WaterZorg Friesland, at the time of the acquisition.
WAFILIN SYSTEMS: WATER INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR 2021
Wafilin Systems, a member of the Water Alliance, won the ‘Water Innovator of the Year’ at the Dutch Water Vision 2021 online conference earlier this year. Wafilin won the award with its DUCAM project [sustainable potato juice concentration using membranes], which has been successfully rolled out at Avebe, a major potato processor in the Netherlands.
Innovative companies, startups or government institutions that value innovation, sustainability and publicprivate cooperation are selected for this award. The search specifically targeted innovations that make the use of industrial water cheaper, more sustainable or more efficient. Besides Wafilin, two other interesting companies were selected. Mid Mix is a project in which several large
Winners of Water Innovator of the Year 2021. Photo by Eric de Vries. water boards in the Netherlands are experimenting with a new sludge processing method, and Mezt is a promising start-up from Delft that has developed an innovation for the agricultural sector, used to recover nitrogen from manure and produce artificial fertilizer and electricity from the ammonia released during that process.
Following an exciting debate in which the finalists discussed the value of water innovation with André Mepschen of the Water Alliance, Wafilin Systems’ DUCAM project emerged the winner. The project achieves significant energy savings and CO2 reduction and allows water filtered from potato juice to be reused, making it a sustainable solution. Reusing the water closes the cycle, helping to ensure a better world today and in the future. >>
SHORT CUTS
NEW LOOK FOR WATERPROOF!
Loyal readers of this magazine will not fail to notice: a new look for WaterProof.
The magazine will now be printed on BalancePure® paper. This is a recycled, bright, white, and uncoated office paper, made from 100% recycled fibres. It’s chlorine-free, and produced without optical brighteners. BalancePure® is FSC certified, and carries the EU eco-label. On behalf of the Water Alliance team: enjoy reading!
Other biorefinery processes in the food industry also show great energy and water saving potential using the technology. “With the DUCAM project, we are making great strides towards achieving our sustainability goals”, said Erik Koops, manager of the Energy Efficiency Program at Avebe. “It will allow us to save a lot of water, energy and CO2. I am proud that we were able to accomplish this with a small team.” Harry van Dalfsen, founder and technical director of Wafilin Systems emphasized the importance of good cooperation by combining the years of experience of all parties. “With the experience and knowledge we have today, we developed a solid, reliable solution with Avebe”, said Wafilin founder Harry van Dalfsen.
BOOST FOR TRANSITION TO CLIMATE-NEUTRAL ECONOMY
The consortium consisting of Wetsus, the University of Groningen, Deltares and NOM will receive €8 million from the Dutch government to better translate knowledge from water technology research to the market and society. The aim is to accelerate the transition to a circular, sustainable and climate-neutral economy.
The ‘Netherlands Enabling Water Technology’ consortium (NEW) stimulates water technology start-ups and initiatives; the main themes are water treatment, water and raw material reuse, production and storage of energy from water and smarter management of the water system.
Water is a finite resource—we cannot live on earth without clean and safe water. Water also plays a major role in various sectors, such as agriculture and horticulture, food, health, energy and chemistry. Climate change, pollution, wastage, a sharp increase in use and the depletion of finite resources are already causing an acute water shortage in many parts of the world. In the coming decades, many economic sectors will need to undergo a transition to circular and climate-neutral production, in which clean water resources are not depleted or polluted. This requires water technology innovations that can be deployed on a large scale and at acceptable cost. The need for breakthrough innovations offers opportunities to innovative Dutch start-ups and entrepreneurs.
The NEW plan consists of two parts: knowledge transfer and a fund. The partners in the knowledge transfer part will scout promising knowledge starters, help them develop faster and propose the most promising starters to the NEW fund. Without financial support from the NEW fund, many good water technology ideas will never reach the market. The NEW knowledge transfer plan is coordinated by Wetsus, located at Water Campus Leeuwarden. The plan combines the valorization strengths and ambitions of three major, international institutes (Wetsus, RUG and Deltares). The idea is that, in combination with the NEW fund, managed by the Noordelijke Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij [NOM; a government-supported investment organization], the plan should lead to more promising knowledge starters and a faster transition of startups to the growth phase.
You could call them the King of the Sewer: CirTec, a member of the Water Alliance, is involved in just about everything done with the wastewater we produce —purification, thickening, screening, drying and reusing—sometimes using spectacular innovations. They have won multiple awards with it.
Their company Cellvation (a partnership with Recell Group), which has been producing 200 to 400 kilograms of Cellulose daily since 2017, also attracted a lot of attention. A striking feature of all CirTec’s activities is that they are bringing us closer to a circular economy, step by step. The company will be in the limelight once again in June 2021, this time with the CellCap machine. CirTec owner Coos Wessels calls it a global first; a breakthrough in extracting cellulose from sewage. His ambition is to sell a hundred units a year in the next five years.
COOS, LET’S START WITH THE QUESTION: WHAT DOES THE CELLCAP DO?
The CellCap is a fine screening machine that consists of two parts. This is also what makes it unique—there are, roughly speaking, only two steps. In step 1, the cellulose washer removes the dirt (fats, hair, seeds, etc.) from the water and in step 2, the IntenSieve®—an improved, energy-efficient, rotating belt fine sieve—removes the cellulose. We are the only party in the world doing this.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
By sieving suspended matter such as undissolved solids from sewage water, WWTPs can reduce their energy consumption and CO2 footprint. The sieved material is referred to as screenings. Research shows that screenings contain an average of around 70% cellulose and that Dutch sewage contains 180,000 tonnes/year of recoverable cellulose. In Western Europe, it amounts to nearly 4.5 billion tonnes/year. The quality of cellulose in sewage water is exceptionally good, making it ideal for use as a high-quality, renewable raw material.
WE UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS STILL SOMETHING TO BE DONE AFTER SIEVING?
Correct. The cellulose still has to be purified. The challenge was figuring out how to strip cellulose of contaminants so that it can be reused and how to use those contaminants for biogas production. After years of development in various projects, we developed CellCap, a composite machine that purifies water and separates cellulose during the process (inline). This is the first time that this can be achieved in a single process.
WHAT DOES IT PRODUCE, EXACTLY?
In addition to cellulose, the CellCap also yields a fermentable residue stream which can be used to produce biogas or methane. It all gets rather technical here, but a study conducted by an independent research agency concluded that the use of 1 tonne of recovered cellulose as a high-grade raw material across the entire chain would lead to savings of 2 to 2.5 tonnes of CO2 eq in comparison to the reference situation. For a treatment plant with a scale of 300,000 pollution units, the above means that using CellCap technology can achieve an emission reduction of over 4,300 tons of CO2 eq per year. To put that into perspective, it is equivalent to the CO2 emissions of over 30,000 return flights from Amsterdam to Paris or the combustion of over 1.37 million litres of diesel!
WHO STANDS TO BENEFIT FROM THIS?
Our planet, first and foremost. Humans have made a pretty big mess of things. That has to change. The sooner we achieve a fully circular economy, the better. But we also see enormous advantages for water treatment plants with the CellCap. They will make their processes cleaner, more energy-efficient and in many cases they will also be able to make new products from residual materials. The rotating belt sieve (IntenSieve®) which is part of the CellCap technology also offers major benefits for industries. It can minimize water consumption at fish farms, reduce discharge costs or in-house purification costs at vegetable processing companies, and recover fibres in the paper industry.
THE WATER TECHNOLOGY SECTOR DOES NOT USUALLY EXCEL AT EXPRESSING MAJOR BUSINESS AMBITIONS, BUT YOU HAVE ALREADY STATED THAT YOU WANT TO SELL MORE THAN 100 MACHINES PER YEAR WITHIN THREE YEARS.
Ambition is necessary; there is nothing wrong with that. We have more than ten years of experience in sieving sewage and industrial wastewater. The technology was developed very carefully and after years of research, and it works. Now we are rolling it out. We have already found partners in Italy, Austria, France and China, and we are talking with representatives in England and Russia. Things can always go wrong, of course, but I am optimistic.
WHERE WILL THE MACHINE BE MANUFACTURED?
In the Netherlands, as far as I am concerned. There may come a time when you need to build machines locally, if only to reduce transport and thus CO2 emissions. But first and foremost, I want to be loyal to the country that helped us develop this innovation through various grants.
Cellulose—the main component in paper—is a natural fiber found in plants and trees. It is an extremely useful raw material for humans. Among other things for paper, but also as a sustainable insulation material for the construction industry. One downside is that trees have to be felled for paper production. By recycling cellulose from wastewater, this is no longer necessary.
Koos Tamminga
A Foothold in Saudi Arabia
Robust, compact and highly efficient. FORU-Solution’s Oil Skimmers—the result of extensive development—are highly effective at cleaning up oil spills. After seven years of development, the focus now lies on marketing. After landing two orders with Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco, worth around €1 million, a celebration was in order. “We are not there yet,” says owner-director Koos Tamminga. “Keeping our business healthy will require around €2 million in sales per year.”
Foru-Solution is a member of the Water Alliance and is based in Harlingen, a port city in the north of the Netherlands, along the Wadden Sea. The idea for the FORU skimmer originated in 1989, when the ExxonValdez oil tanker spilled 100 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean off the coast of Alaska. For engineer Wim Schuur, it was the catalyst for the development of the skimmer. When Schuur retired, owner-directors Koos Tamminga and Bert Sibinga continued to develop the concept further. Most of the testing was performed digitally, and FORU-Solution used the Norwegian Coastal Administration’s test centre in Horten for physical testing. The end product can pump out around 340 cubic metres of oil per hour and is of interest to salvage companies, oil companies and the offshore industry, among others.
Simplicity
The concept’s strength lies in its simplicity, explains Tamminga. “Imagine an empty bucket held upright, just below the water’s surface. It causes a large influx of surface water, with the oil coming to the surface. The oil can be skimmed and pumped into a storage facility such as a container, bin or bladder. A major advantage is that the skimmer hardly pumps any water away.” The compact skimmer can also be used in difficult locations. Tamminga: “Ships cannot go everywhere, and our skimmer can often be taken to the location by car or amphibious vehicle. The skimmer can also be used in very shallow water; our compact FORU-70 was specially designed for the vulnerable shallow parts of the Wadden Sea (UNESCO World Heritage).”
A skimmer on every support vessel
The concept’s simplicity triggered Abdulhakim al Gouhi, vice president of Aramco. Tamminga met him in Dubai during a demonstration of the skimmer. The introduction eventually led to two orders for a total of nine FORUs, with a total order value of approximately
€1 million. “The idea is to eventually have a skimmer on every support vessel in the oil industry,” explains Tamminga. FORU-Solution is currently working on a plan to help Aramco with their oil spill department. “We hope to take it out of their hands entirely in the long run. The focus for an oil company is on sales; cleaning up oil is not their passion. Many of their oil spill specialists will soon be retiring. It is an excellent opportunity for us to help them with our expertise. We are working together with local people and ex-Aramco employees. We have now also established a branch in Saudi Arabia.”
The cooperation with Aramco is an important step forward, but it is not yet enough. Acquisition mainly takes place through video calls and webinars. “We have ongoing contacts with Russia, Indonesia and Vietnam. B2B business takes a long time to get going, but it will pay off. Slow and steady wins the race”, concludes Tamminga.
Viva VIDA!
In late May 2021, the closing event of the VIDA project was held online. VIDA is an abbreviation for the somewhat lengthy Valueadded Innovation in fooD chAins. The project’s main goal was to support European SMEs in making the food industry more sustainable. Vouchers were an important tool to achieve that. Dozens of European SMEs that want to make the food industry more sustainable have received a VIDA voucher in recent years, enabling them to accelerate the introduction of their innovation into the market by a major manufacturer. What are the experiences? We spoke to Marissa de Boer (SusPhos), Mateo Mayer (Water Waves), Willem van Baak (Water Future) and Francisca Medina Pappermann, who was involved in the project coordination as project manager at the Centre of Expertise Water Technology (CEW).
“We have taken a big step, in part thanks to the voucher”, says Marissa de Boer, CEO of startup SusPhos. “We would have succeeded in scaling up without the voucher, but it would have taken much longer. We would have had to find other sources of funding. The VIDA voucher helped us get a lot closer to our goal.” SusPhos, founded in Amsterdam, wants to recover phosphate, magnesium and ammonium from wastewater on a large scale and convert it into high-grade products such as fertilizer and flame retardants. What started with a few grams in the lab is expected to become tonnes at the test site—the water treatment plant in Leeuwarden—in 2021. De Boer applied for the voucher in late 2019. “It arrived at exactly the right time. Our technology was ready to scale up, but we were still lacking a good design. The voucher enabled us to enlist the services of an external company with a lot of experience in this field for the design.”
Three vouchers
The three-year VIDA project strives to make the food processing industry in Europe more efficient in its use of water, energy and raw materials. With a budget of five million euros, the VIDA consortium has been funding all kinds of innovations since May 2018. These are ‘Key Enabling Technologies’ (KET) in the fields of microtechnology, nanotechnology, industrial biotechnology, advanced materials, photonics and advanced manufacturing technologies. The consortium led by The Centre of Expertise Water Technology (CEW) provided three different vouchers. The innovation support voucher of up to €5,000 was intended for individual SMEs looking to purchase knowledge from a third party. For SMEs that wanted to use a test facility, such as SusPhos, there was a validation voucher of up to €25,000. The demonstration vouchers had a maximum value of €250,000 and could be applied for by joint ventures involving at least two SMEs and a potential user. Francesca Medina Pappermann (left) with VIDA Voucher recipient Beatriz García.
Almost a customer
Water Future applied for a demonstration voucher in the fall of 2018. The startup from Dongen has developed a water purification system that enables the agricultural and greenhouse horticultural sectors to efficiently remove salt from wastewater. “We were already testing at a horticulturalist when Wetsus told us about the vouchers”, recalls director Willem van Baak. He and his partners submitted the application. “It wasn’t easy. You have to thoroughly substantiate your plan and be able to explain things like the environmental impact of your innovation. My experience with grant applications came in handy, but CEW also helped us a lot.” Like SusPhos, Water Future took a big step towards commercialization with the voucher. “Without the voucher, our user would have had to invest a lot of money themselves. The tests are going well. We still have a few finishing touches to go, but once that is done, our user will buy the system and we will have our first customer.”
‘Big steps taken thanks to VIDA voucher’
Francesca Medina Pappermann (left) with VIDA Voucher recipient Antonio Idá.
Independence
Water Waves from Leeuwarden also obtained a demonstration voucher. Mateo Mayer’s company has joined forces with other parties to develop an all-in-one concept for greenhouse horticulturists, tackling issues such as greenhouse wastewater. With the help of the voucher, the concept could be tested at a strawberry grower. The collective submitted its plans in spring 2019, with the Water Alliance as a sounding board. “It was important to think not from the technology, but from the user’s point of view. Our launching customer had to state in the plan that our innovation’s goal was achievable at their company,” discloses Mayer. Mayer and co also secured a VIDA validation voucher, which will be used to have Wageningen University validate the technology as an external party. “Validation is necessary to get on the government’s ‘BZG list’, which lists the techniques horticulturalists can use for innovation.” Mayer says that the VIDA project has provided a “tremendous opportunity”. “The two vouchers enabled us to demonstrate that our concept works and we are ready for the market. What I also find important is that we have been able to maintain our independence. I don’t think that would have been possible with any other form of financing.”
Dream
Looking back, Francisca Medina Pappermann, project manager at CEW, is still impressed by the experience. Together with CEW director Jeroen Rijnhart, she was responsible for the coordination. “The most impressive and touching part of the process was starting the network”, says the Chilean, who studied in Chile and Switzerland and now works at WaterCampus Leeuwarden. “It was great to see how inspired all the SMEs were about making a real difference. Everyone clearly felt that they were being offered a great opportunity; they were all prepared to go the distance. The results speak for themselves. I think we have all made huge strides in making the food industry circular. As an additional advantage, where necessary, we were able to introduce companies to working with a customer focus rather than a product focus— in other words, developing solutions together with large commercial clients. We still have a way to go, but steps have been taken in this process that others can build on, which is why I am in favour of maintaining the network. My dream is that we will still be in touch in three years, and that companies will be able to bring the circular economy even closer with new projects.”
Editor’s note: for the remarkable VIDA story of Drop2Drink Water Solutions, see elsewhere in this magazine. They helped Hooghoudt in Groningen produce jenever from rainwater.
Water Alliance has already had two successful projects filmed you can check them here: Drop2Drink Water Solutions and Hooghoudt:
Water Waves and APM Strawberries: VIDA also celebrated the completion of the project with a short film, which can be found here:
