GE has just announced a partnership agreement with Kinrot Ventures, the internationally recognized Israeli trailblazer in VC funding for advanced water technologies.
Hot on the heels of reaching out to international innovators with the Eco Imagination Challenge, GE is now making a strategic move into the water innovation business, as countries around the world begin to address problems associated with chronic shortages of clean water.
Kinrot Ventures is known for incubating extremely innovative water cleantech start-ups.
In the new partnership with GE Power & Water division, Kinrot Ventures will provide the scientific expertize, and GE will assist with strategic development, deeper R&D support, and marketing. With its extreme aridity, and the largest number of scientists per capita in the world, Israel is the acknowledged world leader in waste water reuse.
GE is particularly interested in tapping the brainpower of companies focused on great ideas and future products and solutions to help combat water scarcity globally, according to Michael Idelchik, Vice President of Advanced Technologies for GE Global Research
“Through Kinrot Ventures, we have access to an impressive pipeline of water technologies with strong commercial potential”, said Idelchik. “What GE will be able to offer is application domain requirements and insight and, where needed, R&D support to address key technical hurdles and ultimately channel many of these great ideas to market.”
There is no shortage of great ideas. Among the innovative companies involved,
CoolTek2Go has come up with the world’s smallest, most effective, on-demand portable instant water cooling or heating device, with applications for on-the-go use by hikers, refugees, and even the military.
EcoChemTech turns the waste from desalination into useful chemicals like magnesium carbonate, strontium carbonate and calcium carbonate.
Several find new ways to clean water:
Evina uses a natural biotech filter to get rid of cyanuric acid in swimming pools. (Chlorine breaks down in the sun into cyanuric acid, reducing its effectiveness as a disinfectant)
Kolmir uses ultrasound to disinfect desalinated or recycled waste water. This cuts costs 30% for industrial water treatment using ultrasound instead of treatment chemicals.
Wadis has also created a high tech water disinfectant, using electrical pulses, for applications such as surface water, underground water, storm water, industry, effluent disinfection, and aquaculture.
Diffusaire makes aeration systems (forcing oxygen into water) for fish farms and the waste water treatment industry. Their technology is more energy efficient – cutting energy use (and thus cost) by 50%.
Two use high tech methods to monitor water quality:
TACount Ltd counts micro organisms instantly – developing innovative technology enabling the detection and counting of microorganisms in a matter of minutes.
PML (a spin-off from Technion) has developed a way to instantly sort particles suspended in fluids, by size, to distinguish viruses from specs of clay in waste water.
Four control and monitor the movement of water:
HydroSpin generates electricity from inside water pipes to provide enough power to run sensors for online monitoring of water flow in distant locations that have no electricity supply.
Aquarius Spectrum‘s online monitoring allows municipalities to detect leaks anywhere in municipal water systems.
SPC Tech controls the water pressure in pipes to prevent bursts or leaks.
Eltav Wireless Monitoring makes remote monitors for the valves that control the flow of any liquids in pipes.
Image:Vision and Imagination.com
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