A panel at a recent TechConnect World conference on clean tech and nanotechnology agreed that water purification and treatment techniques continue to attract bright ideas, but getting beyond a nifty prototype is a challenge researchers and entrepreneurs must all face. Global trends all point to limited water in the future, yet new technologies are difficult to commercialize. Finn Nielsen, president of Veolia Water Systems North America, said, “We have been pretty good at coming up with new processes, but I think we are at the point where we really need to take a big step forward. We need new materials–new nanomaterials and fibers. Unfortunately, we are in a market that is very difficult. Customers are risk-averse, they want guarantees, they want demonstrations on their water, not water similar to it.” Prices are likely to skyrocket, adds Nielsen, unless there are significant advances in water treatment. He said there are startups with new promising technologies, but the only way to get such products to market is to partner with a larger company. Or, alternatively, to find customers who are willing to pay more for water, such as the military, or corporations that require water for their operations. Olgica Bakajin, the founder and CEO of start-up Porifera, which is developing new water purification membranes with funding and partnership through the United States Departments of Energy and Defense, says, “The simple solution is to go where water is expensive, where people are willing to pay a lot for it. Government funding focuses us and gives us access to people who have advanced technologies, which we hope will help us put together a very efficient system.”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20071262-54/do-new-water-technologies-stand-a-chance/