This represents an incremental development that has now achieved
critical mass able to tackle the whole problem of cleansing
industrial water. Since the alternative has not been there in far
too many cases beyond the sewage system, this is a welcome
development. Unto now, companies have wanted to repair these
problems and there was no solution. This can now change.
There are plenty of additional problems but this one may be most
accessible. The knowledge and will are typically both there.
Polished effluent is worth something as well.
As indicated, it is not a simple solution but it is a solution whose
time has arrived.
Metro
firm races to tap demand for better water treatment
Axine
Water Technologies has been drawing venture capital firms, including
Vancouver’s Chrysalix, to its ‘high-efficiency oxidation machine’
By
Fiona Hughes, Special to The Sun May 30, 2014
Every
year in North America, an estimated 85 cubic kilometres of waste
water is generated by homes, business and industries. That’s 85
trillion litres.
Water-intensive
industries such as the energy sector, chemical, steel and pulp and
paper plants are responsible for a large percentage of the waste
water.
The
oil industry for example, which is often criticized for processing
more water than oil, can produce four million litres of waste water a
day at an average heavy oil recovery steam-assisted gravity drainage
operation such as those in the Alberta oilsands. A typical steel or
chemical plant can generate anywhere from 75,000 to 750,000 litres of
waste water a day.
Treating
this water is costly, energy intensive and typically involves harsh
chemicals, perhaps incineration, evaporation or even injection into
deep wells. None are 100 per cent satisfactory. And it is getting
costlier as industries face mounting regulatory and social pressures
around water security and reuse.
Chrysalix
EVC, a Vancouver-based venture capital firm that invests in
sustainable innovations in four of the world’s largest industries
(oil and gas, mining and metals, electric power, and chemicals),
believes a local company is on track to solve the multibillion-dollar
waste water problem cheaply, safely and efficiently.
That
is why Chrysalix is investing in Axine Water Technologies, founded by
materials engineer Colleen Legzdins and headed by Jonathan Rhone.
“Cleaning
up the increasing volumes of waste water across these industries
represents a huge opportunity area for innovation,” said Chrysalix
CEO Wal van Lierop, who was drawn early on to the potential of
Axine’s proprietary technology.
The
treatment of industrial waste water has seen explosive growth in the
last five years — to the tune of least $35 billion a year
worldwide, said Axine president and CEO Rhone.
“Most
of the analysts who cover this space are seeing a tremendous increase
in demand for new technologies to treat industrial water — not just
in North America and Europe but also in places like China, India and
the Middle East where economies are under pressure to improve water
quality,” said Rhone. “There is a huge focus on reducing cost and
liabilities associated with water acquisition and waste water
treatment.”
Legzdins,
who spent several years working at Ballard Power until 2009, wanted
to apply her knowledge of electrochemistry and new materials in fuel
cells to the clean-tech sector, said Rhone. Her particular interest
was the hard-to-treat toxic chemicals that end up in waste water.
Legzdins
spent two years in her basement and in a borrowed lab building a
scalable device that can treat waste water without the use of
chemicals and without producing sludge, and at one-fifth the cost of
conventional and existing technologies.
Axine,
a name Legzdins chose, is Greek for “friendly water.”
Thanks
to major investments from Chrysalix, California-based Roda Group and
the National Research Council of Canada, Axine is positioning itself
to be a world leader in treating the toxic organics, ammonia,
sulphides and other pollutants in waste water.
Legzdins’
proprietary electrolytic technology isn’t intended to replace water
treatment plants, but to seamlessly plug into existing facilities.
“One
of the advantages of this technology is it’s extremely modular,”
explained Rhone. “We will manufacture modules that are four feet by
four feet by four feet. These modules will have hundreds of different
cells … Depending on the volume of waste water that a customer
needs to treat, we can provide however many modules they need might
need. The earliest applications for us will likely be in the chemical
and steel industries because these are smaller volumes.”
Rhone
describes the process as straightforward but only possible today
because of significant advances in materials sciences such as
membranes, catalyst coatings and plastics combined with advanced
knowledge of electrochemistry.
“This
technology would not have been possible 10 years ago,” said Rhone.
“It’s very simple to operate but based on decades of advances in
materials sciences.”
Axine
has recently raised more financing to set up pilot plants in 2015 for
“on-site deployment.” Commercial installations should start in
2016. Rhone wouldn’t reveal any company names or locations for the
plants, but said they are customers in the chemical and steel
industries, waste management and oil and gas sector. He is bullish on
the company’s future.
“Within
five years, we hope to achieve real commercial success and to be the
leading company in the world at treating industrial waste water,”
said Rhone, noting the company, located on the main UBC campus, has
grown from one employee two years ago (Legzdins), to 15 full-time
staffers today.
With
Chrysalix as a major investor, Rhone’s optimism may not be not out
of place.
Given
Chrysalix’s global reputation in clean-tech investment, it wouldn’t
be surprising to see more investment flow Axine’s way, said UBC
business professor Thomas Hellmann.
An
investment from Chrysalix is a “huge validation,” said Hellmann,
who is familiar with Chrysalix but not Axine.
“The
important thing to know about Chrysalix is that they are a global
venture capital firm that happens to be located in Vancouver. They
look at opportunities worldwide and if they invest in a local company
it means that local company is at a level that many other global
venture capitalists will be interested in.”
Hellmann
said Chrysalix’s model is partly based on working with industry
incumbents and giants in the industry.
“It
should attract the interest of established players, which is
particularly interesting in all these clean-tech deals,” he said.
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