Winners of the WEX Global 2023 Awards
Innovation in Water Circularity
AB InBev
Improving water treatment in rural Bolivia: the experience of the 100+ Accelerator and Ayala
In 2021, Ayala, a startup from Israel, was selected by the 100+ Accelerator to implement a pilot project with Cervecería Boliviana Nacional (AB InBev affiliate in Bolivia) and the AB InBev Foundation.
Cleaning waste water usually requires huge machines and tons of chemicals. The engineers from Ayala figured out how to do it by using only rocks, plants, and gravity, through their ‘Natural Biological System’ (NBS), an engineered ecological system where natural, physical, chemical, and biological processes occur, passively and simultaneously, to treat all sorts of pathogens, including hard industrial sewage. It produces clean water that can be used for irrigation, among other uses, achieving full water circularity.
In Sacaba, Bolivia, where AB InBev has operations, more than 30% of the population lives under the poverty line and more than 40% lack water access and sanitation. Untreated wastewater is currently affecting local strategic watersheds and leading to water contamination of its main lagoon and river. The pilot’s main goal was to install Ayala’s technology in two schools: Pampilla and Larati.
By installing these two systems, wastewater that used to be contaminating the river and lagoon is now processed and used for irrigation. These systems have the capacity to treat up to 20 m3 of sewage daily, providing 400 people with sewage treatment and irrigation quality water for local fields. The next phase of the pilot is being designed and includes ensuring water security and water quality to the growing number of villagers and users.
Innovation in Decarbonising
Aquacycl
BioElectrochemical Treatment Technology
Aquacycl’s BioElectrochemical Treatment Technology system mitigates greenhouse gases of wastewater treatment by 90% by removing the bulk of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and making all downstream treatment more efficient. At one site (PepsiCo) we have a long-term commercial contract in place to treat discarded product, and we are mitigating an average 110 tons greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per month. This helps PepsiCo to decarbonize their operations, ensure predictability of sewer surcharges, and reduce treatment costs by an average of 30% per month.
Aquacycl provides energy-neutral industrial pretreatment as a service and is the only technology for treatment of ultra high-strength organic wastewater without dilution. This allows rethinking the way wastewater is treated, by separating and only treating small volumes of highly concentrated wastewater, allowing the cleaner, high-volume streams to be reused.
The system is based on microbial fuel cell technology. It uses locally-sourced bacteria to clean the wastewater, reduce sludge and produce direct electricity. As the bacteria break down organic matter, they release electrons which are captured as direct current and used to offset the power consumption of the system and accelerate treatment rates.
We impact decarbonization by:
- Eliminating emissions related to trucking sludge and wastewater
- Directly treating the ultra-high strength streams (up to 300,000 mg/L BOD), which is often landfilled or burned
- Making all downstream treatment more efficient by removing the bulk of BOD, including increasing biogas by 20-30% when we are in front of an anaerobic digester and reducing energy consumption of aerobic treatment.
Innovation in Digitalised Water Management
Royal HaskoningDHV & Waterschapsbedrijf Limburg
Digital Twin of WBL’s wastewater transportation system
Waterschapsbedrijf Limburg (WBL) is a Dutch regional water authority whose core business is wastewater transportation, wastewater treatment, and sludge treatment. WBL owns and operates 17 wastewater treatment plants and 149 sewage pumping stations. WBL serves 500,000 households and 30,000 businesses, processing 150 million m3 of wastewater annually.
WBL’s ambition is to establish truly data-driven operations and maintenance of their wastewater transportation and treatment infrastructure.
Royal HaskoningDHV were contracted as supplier (both design and develop) of the big data platform as well as the software solution. The first step in that ambition was the development and full-scale implementation of a digital twin of their wastewater transportation system. This digital twin delivers insights and early warnings of deteriorating performance of the transportation systems to operators in the WBL’s Central Control Room. The digital twin focusses on:
- Catchment contribution analysis, identifying dry weather contribution, rain weather contribution and unaccounted for contribution (e.g., due to illegal spills)
- Pipe condition analysis, identifying sudden failures like pipe breaks and blockages, and more gradual deterioration of the performance due to, for example, clogging buildup
- Pump performance analysis, identifying deteriorating pump performance (e.g., due to wear) in an early stage.
The digital twin solution takes realtime data from the wastewater transportations system (flows, pressures, etc.) and rainfall data from a weather company. These are fed to machine learning algorithms that have ‘learned’ the normal behavior of the system, and generates performance indicators that describe the expected behavior at any given time. It continuously generates early warnings in case of unexpected deviations in the normal or optimal behavior of the system.
Innovation in Financial Partnership
Desalytics Water Solutions
Intelligent financing for Africa
Millions of people lack access to drinking water and basic sanitation in Africa. Despite the influx of donations to improve these services, donated equipment often needs more local service and training to ensure its long-term effectiveness. This can result in a waste of resources and ultimately leave these communities no better off than before.
SOLUTION:
Desalytics and Hach partnered to create an intelligent financing model to improve water quality control in Zambia without additional financing. The project took advantage of Hach’s customer base, asking them to upgrade their spectrophotometers to the latest model and donate older models to Zambia. Hach and Desalytics funded the refurbishment costs, shipping, customs clearance, and delivery. Desalytics’ local team trained users on the equipment, providing local support.
OUTCOME:
The project provided free equipment worth $200K without raising funds by utilizing existing equipment. Customers in the Netherlands were happy to have contributed to better water in Africa, and Hach Benelux was able to sell new models and secure market share. Desalytics’ team in Zambia gained new customers they will support through reagents and services. The financing model showcased the importance of minimizing financial costs associated with providing equipment to developing countries and maximizing returns, which can help to reduce waste, a critical issue in the development sector. Overall, the project was a success, demonstrating the potential of intelligent financing to address complex global challenges. We plan to scale this initiative across multiple countries in Europe and Africa, reaching $1M of donated equipment this year.
Aqualia Award for Innovation
Ferr-Tech
The Aqualia Award for Innovations 2023 went to Ferr-Tech, for FerSol, Ferrate(VI) solution for washing and wastewater treatment in Polymer Recycle Plants.
Sponsored by Aqualia, this forum is specifically designed to introduce new and innovative start-up companies to major organisations in the water and energy sectors. You are giving the opportunity to pitch your company’s system or technology to a full house of global decision-makers in water, wastewater and energy.
