BlueTech Innovation Forum

Presentations

Overview

Co-chaired by Laura Shenkar of the Artemis Project and Paul O’Callahan of O2 Environmental Inc., the BlueTech Innovation Forum at The Renaissance Stanford Court in San Francisco welcomed over 200 attendees, including executives from advanced water technology companies, venture capitalists, corporate and municipal customers, water specialists, researchers, utilities, government agencies, and thought leaders from the water industry. Says Shenkar, “Only through a combination of projects that help bring advanced technologies to market, and applying these technologies in enterprise projects and public policy work, can the potential for advanced water tech products be realized.”

Opportunity, the Waste Knot, Smarter Water and Membranes

The conference opened with a keynote panel on “Opportunity in Water Risk” which included speakers Agustin Araya from Makena Capital, William Brennan from Brennan Investment Partners and Avtar Vasu from Harvard Management Company. This session surveyed the substantial financial opportunities presented by controlling water risk, and discussed the realization that water will be one of the major resource issues of the 21st Century – while you can substitute one energy source for another, there is no substitute for water.

“Untying the Waste Knot” discussed the shift in wastewater treatment from one-way disposal to recycling, turning what was formerly “waste” into new products. Factors driving this change include rising energy costs, increasing urbanization, aging infrastructure, capital intense water systems, and policies to reduce the carbon footprint of water. Panelists were Tim Evans, Ph.D., biosolids & nutrient recovery expert and member of O2 Technology Assessment Group; Paul O’Callaghan, CEO of O2 Environmental, Inc.; BlueTech Analyst, co-author of “Water Technology Markets” and CEO of MaxWest Environmental Systems Ross Patten,; and Claudio Ternieden, Assistant Director of Research at Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF).

Peter Williams, CTO of IBM’s Big Green Innovation Unit, moderated a panel discussing “Smarter Water” featuring Helge Daebel, Water Technology Specialist at Emerald Technology Ventures; Carrie Freeman, Corporate Sustainability Manager at Intel; Maggie Theroux, Innovative Technologies, US EPA National Risk Management Research Laboratory; and Raj Valame, Sr. Director, Solution Management, SAP. Panelists discussed technologies such as wide-area sensor networks, smart metering, remote sampling, real-time control, systems modeling, data integration visualization and computer-aided design that will enable higher energy efficiency, water-loss reduction, systems that provide early warning of contaminations, smart billing, automation of the water system and a variety of other solutions. They also discussed current trends in the Smart Water sector.

Membrane technology for water treatment is the single most significant technology advancement in the past decade. It is rapidly pervading every aspect of water use including drinking water treatment, desalination, wastewater treatment, and water re-use. The market will become more dynamic and complex as water security becomes mission-critical to businesses. Speakers Graeme Pearce, Membrane Technology market expert and member of O2 TAG; John McArdle, Water Technology Business Development at Battelle Institute; and Jeff Green, CEO of NanoH2O,  spoke to how emerging markets will drive the development of the most promising technologies, what the critical success factors are for driving profitability of membrane solutions and what opportunities exist for VC investment.

Keynote

The lunchtime keynote speaker was Dr. Vikram Rao, Executive Director at Research Triangle Energy Consortium, who entertained with his speech, “Water Tech for a Thirsty Industry-Energy Exploration”. His main points: an average of three barrels of polluted water is produced for each barrel of oil produced globally, for a total of nearly 4 trillion gallons annually. This “produced water” has attracted significant public controversy and regulation. Meanwhile, as a result of new technologies, US natural gas reserves estimates have increased by 39%. Advanced water treatment technologies are needed to realize this potential. Dr. Rao described the “oil plateau” and the resultant emergence of natural gas as a rival source of energy for transportation in the US.

Water Quality, Corporate Shopping Lists and the Water Avatar

After lunch Panels included “Water Quality-Challenges in a New Era of Water Scarcity”, “What’s on the Corporate Buyer’s Shopping List?”, and “Changing the Water Management Paradigm-The Water Avatar”.

Andreas Kolch, advanced water treatment market expert & member of O2 TAG, and Glenn R. Rink, Founder, President and CEO of AbTech Industries, Inc. discussed howwater scarcity and infrastructure decay are increasing the dangers of contaminants in water in the “Water Quality” panel. They discussed that while most water today is treated electrochemically, or via advanced oxidation and photocatalysis, the most promising water treatment solutions combine several approaches into a complete process.

“What’s on the Corporate Buyer’s Shopping List” featured a panel of multi-national corporate development executives who identified the different types of strategic water technologies they are looking to fund and/or acquire. Moderated by Russell W. Landon, Managing Director, Investment Banking CANACCORD|Genuity, the presenters were Rich Bendure, VP of Water & Process Services, Nalco; Bill de Waal, Director, Innovation Management, Trojan UV & member of O2 TAG; Shellie A. Davis, Mergers & Acquisitions, The Coca-Cola Company; and Don Ezzell, Head of Corporate Strategy, Heckmann Corp.

The last panel of the day was “Changing the Water Management Paradigm”, and addressed how we will soon see a wholesale re-invention of the water industry — moving from 50 years of incremental improvement to a new period of disruptive transformation. As we replace our aging infrastructure, the new paradigm must be holistic, sustainable, intelligent and upgradeable. Not only are advanced technologies needed, but we must also innovate in the ways we design products, bring them to market and construct our business models. Single-point solutions must give way to plug-and-play turnkey solutions to provide robust systems. Laura Shenkar, Principal of The Artemis Project moderated, and asked presenters to specifically identify what they saw as the “silver bullet” that would provide the necessary benefits. Presenters for this panel were Nicholas Ashbolt, Office of Research and Development, US EPA; Edward E. Getty, Ph.D., Group Director, Head of External Technology Acquisition, The Coca-Cola Company; John Coburn, Managing Director, XPV Ventures; and Zane Gresham, Partner, Morrison Foerster.

The Artemis Project Top 50 Awards

The conference concluded with Laura Shenkar presenting The Artemis Project’s Top 50 Awards. The Water Tech Top 50 is the world’s leading business competition for advanced water technology companies.  This award distinguishes advanced water and water-related technology companies as leaders in their trade. It is the only competition specifically designed to evaluate the investment potential of emerging providers of Water Tech solutions.  Companies were judged by a diverse and talented panel of judges on four criteria: intellectual property, technology, market potential and team. In addition to the prestige and recognition of being listed in the Top 50, winners of the award were able to display a poster presentation in the poster gallery during the BlueTech Innovations Conference.  The winners’ poster presentations can be viewed here.