It is a wrap, IWS and Innovate@IWS 2018

The competition and pavilion showcased the “best of the best” in the world of water technology. Three competitions over three separate days, covering Municipal, Real Estate and Public Use, and Industrial innovations respectively. With three categories we were able to showcase very diverse trends and technologies.

This week Isle was present at the Abu Dhabi International Water Summit (15-18 January, 2018) as the organizer of the Innovate@IWS competition and the Smart Water Expo. The competition and pavilion showcased the “best of the best” in the world of water technology. Three competitions over three separate days, covering Municipal, Real Estate and Public Use, and Industrial innovations respectively. With three categories we were able to showcase very diverse trends and technologies.

The municipal sector has a huge amount to gain from the smart water trend and the pace of adoption of smart and data driven technologies is dependent on engagement with the right stakeholders. The right level of skills and knowledge is required to select the appropriate tools and create the business case to reflect all the potential benefits. According to our judges (leaders from, ADSSC, ADWEA, PureTerra Ventures and Águas do Porto) the best business case was presented by Witteveen+Bos (www.witteveenbos.com). Their 1-STEP® filter is a modular and compact fixed bed activated carbon filter operated at a relatively high rate downward flow combining four treatment processes into one additional single treatment unit.

It was a close call on the Industrial day. The judges deliberated a long time before deciding on the winner. The diverse background of the judges might have been the cause (Shadi W Hasan, professor from Masdar institute, Geoff Townsend, Industry fellow, Nalco Water and Eva Eva Ramos Perez Torreblanca from the Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi). The fourth Judge was Alexander Crowell, Managing Director of PureTerra Ventures a private equity firm focusing on investing in disruptive water technologies. PureTerra was our pavilion sponsor and speakernfor Industrial day. According to Mr. Crowell, “Isle provides these innovative companies a highly visible venue to present their solutions and technologies to the world and we are proud to be part of that initiative.” . The Industrial winner was the Canadian company Emagin (https://emagin.ca) they presented their operational intelligence platform, HARVI, that supports real-time decision making when controlling critical assets to water and wastewater facilities.

On the final day, Smart Water in Real Estate & Public use was discussed. In this category you see a rising demand by consumers to have homes that have smart connected features. Another focus is in property management for reducing water consumption and onsite waste water treatment or reuse. The Dutch technology Hydraloop (www.hydraloop.com) fulfils those wishes and therefor won the Innovate@IWS award. The Hydraloop is a residential water saving system that recycles 55% of normal mains water used. Hydraloop cleans and disinfects waste water from the shower, bath and washing machine so it can be reused for lavatory flushing, washing machine, garden irrigation or topping up the swimming pool.

It is no coincidence that 2 Dutch companies won, since we had a great partnership this year with the WaterAlliance from The Netherlands in recruiting companies in the lead up to the program. Of course all ‘Smart Water’ technologies of Innovate@IWS are winners, so for a full overview of all the technologies you can go to: www.internationalwatersummit.com/innovate-at- iws

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