Japanese multinational Fujitsu is hoping that its blockchain solution could help to secure recycled water trading between industrial facilities.
Securing plant-derived water using blockchain
Japanese multinational Fujitsu hopes that its blockchain solution could promote water trading between industrial facilities, including juice concentration facilities, sugar mills and alcohol distilleries.
A partnership with Botanical Water Technologies will see the blockchain water trading platform launch to underpin the exchange of recycled water.
Called the Botanical Water Exchange" (BWX), the ambition is for the system to help secure water trading for industrial plants, covering sales, purchase, delivery and usage of the water.
Water produced from the production of vegetable and fruit juices and the processing of sugarcane is often discarded. The companies are hoping that up to 60 per cent of water produced during sugarcane processing, for example, can be refined, traded and reused between facilities, contributing to a reduction in water loss.
Reducing industrial waste
“Reducing all wastage from industrial processes is a key pillar of a circular economy,” said Terry Paule, CEO at Botanical Water Technologies.
Companies that want to use Botanical Water in their factories can purchase it via the BWX platform from the nearest Botanical Water refinery.
Fujitsu said: “By purchasing “water credits” that can be redeemed on the BWX platform, companies can also donate the same amount of water consumed at their facilities in order to reduce their environmental impact to zero as part of their water positive ESG and corporate compliance programs.”
One example listed is for large water users to offset their usage through the purchase of water credits.
Blockchain and water
Blockchain is, in its basic form, a digital record distributed across the internet and allows two users to conduct a transaction without the need for a third party or central company, such as a bank or PayPal.
One of the main selling points to date on blockchain is that it can provide a 100 per cent secure, verifiable and traceable database or a 'ledger' of transactions.
To date, blockchain uses in water have been limited, but they are growing. For example, the Atlantic DataStream project provided a distributed ledger to provide security for community-based water quality monitoring in Canada.
Furthermore, Dutch water utility, PWN, has been using blockchain to secure smart water meter data.
Meanwhile, IBM claims to have over 400 “blockchain client engagements” with one water project in Africa set for a “blockchain upgrade”.
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