Water treatment Point of use Europe

Stabilising ferrate: Dutch start-up wins innovation prize at EWTW

Wednesday, 28 September 2022

Water technology company Ferr-Tech has won the WIS Award 2022 at the European Water Technology Week in Leeuwarden, for its ferrate-based water treatment innovation.

Ferrate finishes first

Water technology company Ferr-Tech has won the Water Alliance Innovation Stimulation (WIS) Award 2022 at the European Water Technology Week (EWTW) in Leeuwarden, for its ferrate (VI)-based water treatment innovation.

The company has developed a process by which ferrate (VI) becomes stable and sustainable for industrial wastewater treatment use.

Judith le Fèvre, director of marketing & public affairs at Ferr-Tech accepted the award in Leeuwarde.

Ferrate(VI) is a strong oxidant used for water treatment of industrial wastewater and has the advantage of being environmentally friendly and biodegradable.

Until Ferr-Tech's innovation, it has been extremely difficult to produce stable ferrate (VI). Now, the company said it has developed a stable, energy-efficient and circular model for industrial wastewater treatment.

The WIS award is an annual prize awarded to a company that has developed a technology that has the potential to benefit the whole water sector.

As well as the technology innovation, the company is also judged on the business model, growth and potential application. As well as receiving the award, the winner also benefits from a €10,000 prize to go towards the marketing of the technology.

Previous alumni of the WIS award include Hydraloop Systems and Samotics.

Connecting hubs and clusters

This year's EWTW took place from place during September 19-22 and was themed around connecting different global water hubs and clusters.

Speaking to Aquatech Online, Hein Molencamp, managing director of the Water Alliance, previously said: “Scaling water tech innovation is a long and costly journey most of the time, and it acquires perseverance and a positive attitude of the entrepreneur, especially for the large number of start-ups and scale-ups. Besides launching your innovation in your home market, it will be crucial to scale up to international markets.

“They can also define local challenges with end customers and connect interesting technology from the Netherlands.”

“Therefore, Water Alliance has built up an extensive number of contacts with other water clusters and water hubs in the world. Not just in Europe but also globally. Our goal is to speed up internationalization by connecting companies with innovative technologies to clusters and hubs in our international network.”

International water clusters, accelerators and hubs from France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Singapore, China, Canada, USA were present at the EWTW stages and networking floor.

“Because also those clusters have member companies who are interested in getting in touch with innovations from the Netherlands. They can also define local challenges with end customers and connect interesting technology from the Netherlands,” he added.