At the 2017 Global Water Awards, Eric Hoek (centre) accepts the award for the Breakthrough Water Technology Company of the Year from Christopher Gasson of Global Water Intelligence (left) and keynote speaker, author, and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb (right). Photo credit: 2017 Global Water Award
Water Planet, a company based in California that produces and markets the world’s very first smart membrane products, recently received the 2017 Global Water Award as Breakthrough Water Technology Company of the Year. Presented in Madrid, Spain, at the Palacio de Cibeles, the award honours early stage company that have made the most impressive commercial breakthroughs into the global water technology market in 2016.
Global Water Intelligence, whose Global Water Awards are considered one of the most prestigious honours in the water industry, commented, “Water Planet’s successes have been nurtured by a laser-sharp focus on innovation, as well as teamwork and a culture where every employee is encouraged to put their ideas forward. Founded only five years ago, the company has made a mockery of the traditional protracted technology commercialisation process in the water sector.”
“We are indeed honoured by this award and wish to thank our team members, customers, strategic partners, investors and early researcher collaborators at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). Their combined support has been instrumental in Water Planet’s extraordinary success,” CEO of Water Planet, Eric Hoek, said. “In an industry where it often takes a decade or more to successfully commercialise a new technology, we have successfully commercialised two revolutionary products in half that time. This success shows us that the market is keen to embrace the advantages that these intelligent membrane products can deliver to customers across all industries.”
Since 2011, Water Planet has successfully developed two breakthrough products and brought them to market: IntelliFlux®, the first artificial-intelligence based self-adaptive flux optimisation control software on the market, and PolyCera®, a Nobel Prize-winning, revolutionary polymer technology that allows production of a new class of hydrophilic, easy to clean, and robust filtration membranes.
Last year, Water Planet realised the commercial launch and first sales of PolyCera-based ultrafiltration membranes in Canada, China, India, and the United States (US). Additionally, Water Planet closed the initial sale of two IntelliFlux-powered ultrafiltration systems in the US as the first part of a multi-unit, multi-year contract with a leading oilfield service company in Canada. Water Planet also sold the first two units of yet another multi-unit, multi-year contract deal with a water treatment original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that deploys the PolyCera membranes powered by IntelliFlux in mobile tertiary treatment of domestic wastewater that is off the grid.
By 2019, through these first two strategic agreements alone, Water Planet’s breakthrough ultrafiltration products will be cleaning more than two billion gallons (7.5 billion litres) of wastewater per year.
