Twitter Pitch

Biowater Technology makes it much easier to supply solutions to take wastewater back to drinking water.

Company Information

• ECO12 Award category: Startup
• Company name: Biowater Technology AS
• Country of origin: Norway
• Company address: Rambergvn. 5, 3115 Tonsberg, Norway
• Founding year: 2007
• Company status: private company
• Website: www.biowatertechnology.com
• Contact person: Terje Andersen, CEO, Biowater Technology, terje@biowatertechnology.com
• CEO: Terje Andersen (Photo)

Elevator Pitch

Biowater Technology is an innovative industry leader in biological wastewater treatment, providing state of the art solutions combined with process guarantees. The Biowater team were pioneers of industry standard MBBR (moving bed biofilm reactor) technology which uses high surface area biomedia with a compact size. Biowater continues to innovate. The patented CFIC (continuous flow intermittent cleaning) technology, proven over three trials, optimises cleaning of biofilm in-flight using wastewater, thus reducing down-time and increasing efficiency. Their patented HyVAB (hybrid vertical anaerobic biofilm bioreactor) technology, currently in development, promises a one step treatment combining biological and separation stages. The result will be the most compact wastewater treatment unit available, dramatically reducing CAPEX and OPEX. Biowater is well positioned to gain share in the highest growth segments of biological wastewater treatment systems, a market that is predicted to grow 16% annually to reach $1B by 2017.

Smart Green Product

Biowater’s proprietary CFIC technology offers industry-leading performance when compared with widely used Activated Sludge and MBBR solutions. The low footprint, combined with Biowater’s approach to process design makes this far more versatile than existing solutions, making it very suitable for a wide range of existing waste water treatment plants. Major features of the CFIC are a continuous inflow to the bioreactor and intermittent cleaning, using influent wastewater which removes excess biomass (sludge) from the biofilm carriers. A large void volume, provided by the shape of the biocarriers, allows the biofilm to grow and accumulate. This volume reduces the need for cleaning cycles. Biowater’s HyVAB technology allows wastewater to be treated anaerobically and aerobically, enabling separation of sludge and water within a single reactor volume. The reactor design removes the majority of suspended solids and biomass. This results in fewer clogging problems in downstream membrane separation units, enables reduced use of chemicals and facilitates maintenance. In addition, Biogas released from the digestion process could be used in a combined heat and power plant (CHP) as fuel to generate reliable electricity at a cost below retail electricity and resulting in an energy self-sufficient process. HyVAB will significantly reduce the footprint, capital costs, need for additives and energy consumption.

Milestones

• Funding: confidential
• Investors: confidential
• Employees: 2011: 11
• Revenues: confidential
• Customers: Shell (Norway), Vigor (Brazil), Kimberly Clark (Brazil), Parkson (USA) and Municipality of Trysil (Norway)