The winners of the third edition of WssTP (Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform) Water Innovation SMEs Awards were announced at the Water Innovation Europe 2016 conference. The four winners of the 2016 edition of the awards were; akvola Technologies from Germany, Aqua-Q from Sweden, Arvia from the UK, and WINGS ICT Solutions from Greece.
“The innovations of the four winners were identified, as the best practices in their field of application with high market potential,” Durk Krol, WssTP Director, told The Source. “It is very important for the European water sector to stimulate the innovation potential of SMEs and push them to the forefront of the European economy. Because of their size, SMEs are often much better at identifying and embracing new trends in the water sector and therefore, paving the way for bigger and braver investments.”
akvola Technologies is a water technology company specialising in the treatment of hard-to-treat industrial wastewater with a focus in the removal of oil and suspended solids. akvola Technologies have designed akvoFloat, a separation technology based on a proprietary flotation-filtration process. The process has resulted in the most energy-efficient design on the market for oil, algae and suspended solids removal in hard-to-treat waters.
Aqua-Q is an applied research oriented consulting company focused on microbiological water safety and environment protection. The company has created an online monitoring and sampling process AQUATRACK, an Early Warning sampling system. AQUATRACK is an optical laser based online sensor system equipped with automatic intelligent water sampler that detects all possible forms of variations caused by contamination.
Arvia offers lab testing services, pilot plant rental or purchase services, and designs and constructs full-scale wastewater treatment systems. Arvia Technology supplies advanced tertiary water and wastewater treatment systems that remove hard-to-treat (recalcitrant) COD, as well as colour and persistent organic micro-pollutants such as emerging contaminants, pesticides, pharmaceutical residues, endocrine disruptors and carcinogenic compounds.
WINGS ICT Solutions conducts research and develops software-intensive solutions. WINGS participates in the Proteus project, developing software which offers: the required adaptability that enables a single device to monitor several, highly differentiated, water parameters, and predictive capabilities for quickly and reliably identifying problems.
