The market
The global water treatment market and drinking water production represents one of the safest investments ever made. Water goods are essential for society and industry. The availability of clean water is increasingly under pressure as the population increases and that consumption per capita increases constantly. Before, the water was free, a common good. In recent decades, water has become a profitable activity with a safe cash flow and increasing costs for the consumer.
The global water and wastewater treatment market exceeded the 200 billion dollars mark in 2009. China is top of this market with annual growth estimated at 17%. Wastewater treatment is estimated at $ 40 billion with more than 13,000 companies worldwide, thanks to long -term service contracts. Until now, the water treatment model included sedimentation and oxidation, that is to say the decantation of solid materials and air pumping, as well as a subsequent chemical treatment.
The annual volume of chemicals used to treat water in the United States exceeds 10 million tonnes. The increase in global water demand is accompanied by an increase in the demand for chemicals.
The consumption of bottled water has increased on average by 12% per year over the past decade, with sales estimated at $ 22 billion. One of the fastest growth niches in this quest for expansion of drinking water supply is the conversion of salt water and gray water into drinking water by reverse osmosis. Requests in fixed assets for this technology exceeds $ 2.2 billion per year, but we expect that they are still increasing by 50% over the next four years. Aguas de Barcelona (Spain), which is part of the GDF Suez group (France), plans the largest installation of this type, investing more than a billion dollars, thus releasing Barcelona with a chronic water shortage.
Innovation
It is in the context of the global water market that we have to assess the arrival of a simple and extraordinary innovation: the vortex. The vortex has the capacity to considerably increase the efficiency of water treatment, reducing costs while creating local jobs. This natural phenomenon could one day replace chemicals and membranes as well as disturbing the current cash flows of traditional suppliers that seem safe. The vortex technological platform is inspired by the observation that dirty water is purified by itself as in a river flowing. The swirling movement continues strengths the air to enter and get out of the water, discouraging and stimulating beneficial microorganisms.
Two Swedish inventors, the development engineer Curt Hallberg and his colleague Morten Oveson, translated their observations into a mathematical model and then created a simple device that imitates water movement in a vortex with predictable results. They continued their business to create WATRECO AB based in Malmö. WATRECO AB was elected Swedish company Greentech of 2009. This company is more than green - it changes the economic model of water. Recently, Curt has also created Vortex Innovations, a research group that works in collaboration to find "blue solutions".
The power of the whirlwind lies in the predictability of the laws of physics, where the air particles are trained towards the center, from where the air is sucked. The energy source for this process can simply be gravity, which is guaranteed to supply the device 24 hours a day! There are no more chemicals, no more membranes and energy consumption is minimal.
The first cash flow
The inventors carried out a wide range of applications from their Vortex apparatus and looked for the first obvious use on the market near their home, which was quickly identified as the manufacture of ice. The vortex generator, handmade, has obtained beneficial results: energy savings and crystalline ice. Water contains air, dissolved in bubbles of the order of the micron. The vortex eliminates this air, and as air acts as an insulation, the resulting air water freezes more quickly. The ice, free of air, is clear and cracks much less easily. When applied to ice hockey skating rinks, Ice advertising brands remain visible all season, which increases advertising revenues. As there is no air in ice, aerobic bacteria that usually develop in ice like E. Coli and Salmonella cannot survive. Most of the major Scandinavian skating rinks have since adopted this technology, which has resulted in a return on investment in a few months, not in a few years.
The second niche that generated cash flows for Watreco AB is the golf course. A golf course may require up to more than three million liters of water per day. To save water, surfactants are added to the water so that it enters the lawn more quickly and that it evaporates less. If the water has been pre -treated by the Vortex machine, no chemicals are necessary, which reduces water needs by 20 to 30%. This is a case where the vortex makes chemicals superfluous. A third market niche is the elimination of algae from stable water bodies, including swimming pools, which are generally treated with chemicals such as chlorine.
The opportunity
Although hockey skating rinks and golf courses are niche markets, the experience acquired in these sectors has prepared Curt Hallberg and its team with growing markets, including the treatment and desalination of industrial water. The trial units of the Canary Islands Vortex machine have shown that its salt water treatment again allows air to be eliminated, which then eliminates the problem of biofilms. Biofilms develop on membranes, which reduces their effectiveness. This obliges the closure of the desalination installation by reverse osmosis every two weeks to chemically eliminate biofilms. This increases maintenance costs (through an additional chemical requirement) and reduces the efficiency of the installation (since the stop periods require a backup) as well as the additional capital need for replacement membranes (since the lifespan of a membrane is reduced). If there is no air in water, aerobic bacteria are excluded. If a vortex but no chemicals are used, the lifespan of the membrane increases. In fact, the energy cost of a cubic meter of drinking water could drop from 2.4 to 1.0 kilowatt per hour.
There are only some of the applications of the vortex that have been made, but others are expected to be revealed soon. However, what we know today confirms that vortex technology reduces operating costs, saving energy, eliminating chemicals and generating better performance of existing investments. The challenge for traditional industries is that the successful integration of the vortex in existing installations requires a new basic competence: fluid dynamics. It is now in General Electric, Siemens and Nitto Denko to get us out of the box. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs from around the world can create a new competitive model that generates local jobs around the world.
