akvola Technologies (Berlin, Germany; www.akvola.com), a water technology company providing solutions for the removal of oils and suspended solids from hard-to-treat industrial effluents, won the WssTP Water Innovation SME Awards 2016. The WssTP Innovation and Technology Advisory Board (iTAB) chose from hundreds of applications on the basis of their innovation, market potential and exploitation strategy. Among its members, the iTAB counts with experts from Veolia Research and Innovation and SUEZ’s CIRSEE (Centre International de Recherche sur l’Eau et l’Environnement), two top-tier water research centers.
“We’re very pleased to have our continuous effort and the hard work of all of our employees acknowledged by this award,” says akvola Technologies’ CFO, Lucas León. “Engineering cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solutions that treat water up to high reuse and discharge standards is our total focus at akvola Technologies – and innovation is a key element of our success.”
The successful results achieved in the first half of 2016 — 11 Purchase Orders — and the recognition brought by this award will help the Company accelerate its commercialisation efforts in bringing its innovative akvoFloat-based solutions to more customers in the oil&gas, metalworking, steel and other industries (for more information about the technology, see also Chem. Eng., June 2016, p. 7; https://www.chemengonline.com/commercial-launch-hybrid-wastewater-treatment-process).
WssTP (Brussels, Belgium; www.wsstp.eu) is the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform that was initiated for Research and Technology Development in the water industry. It aims to find the routes towards better exploitation and stewardship of our water sources by society and businesses while developing resilient and sustainable solutions for our key global water challenges. Their vision seeks a future where water scarcity and pollution of ground- and surface water are avoided, water, energy and resource loops are closed to a large extent to realize a circular economy, the water system is resilient against climate change events and water-related business thrives as a result of forward-looking research and innovation