Clean water availability is becoming a problem in the U.S. as water technology startups look for solutions amid climate change.
That was one consensus among panelists at a water tech innovation luncheon hosted by the Wisconsin Technology Council at UWM’s Innovation Accelerator in Wauwatosa on July 14.
“Every utility in the United States has a wet weather problem,” said Paige Peters, founder and chief technology officer of Milwaukee-based wastewater treatment firm Rapid Radicals Technology LLC. “No system has been constructed to deal with the climate change and the outcomes of climate change we’re facing.”
Peters, a panelist at the event, and her team at Rapid Radicals Technology developed a system to prevent sewer overflows during storms that can treat wastewater in less than 30 minutes compared with the eight hours it usually takes. The startup recently won the 19th annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest in June.
Rapid Radicals’ wastewater treatment device has a national market since it is decentralized, Peters said. The Great Lakes region has 152 combined sewer cities with 9,300 outfalls the company could install their units at, and the U.S. has over 850 combined sewer cities.
While Peters said the company is currently operating on grant funding it already received – including $1.5 million of non-dilutive funding through the National Science Foundation and matching grants through the Center for Technology Commercialization – it might eventually consider investments from angel investors, venture capital firms or more “creative” options to scale its technology.
A company with a history of acquiring smaller water treatment firms is Milwaukee-based A. O. Smith Corp., one of the world's largest manufacturers of residential and commercial water heating equipment and boilers.
Rebecca Tallon, director of water treatment technologies and materials at A. O. Smith, was also a panelist at the event and said her company is still beginning the water treatment side of its business.
Tallon said she sees a future in larger companies incorporating startups’ technologies into their business model as demand for water technology expands, especially if the U.S. modernizes its infrastructure.
“I think from the residential-commercial business we are seeing the trend of bigger companies coming in and recognizing where we have gaps and trying to fill them with some smaller companies. It’s a growing area,” Tallon said. “There’s more opportunity for us even with things like the infrastructure bill as municipalities try to improve their infrastructure.”
Water technologies other than water treatment also have market applications to solve problems as water becomes more scarce in parts of the country, said Dean Amhaus, president and CEO of Milwaukee-based nonprofit The Water Council.
Amhaus mentioned Milwaukee-based Wellntel Inc., a company that developed a device to sell data on the information collected about groundwater, and another firm that uses zero-energy desalination units in the ocean to sell water to resorts and communities as examples of new market applications of water technology.
Amhaus cautioned that water technologies – despite there being high demand for them as water becomes more scarce – require a lengthy approval process.
“You have to think about water technology like a pharmaceutical drug,” Amhaus said. “You’re dealing oftentimes with people’s health. Plus, you factor in regulatory aspects of things at a local level, state level (and) federal level.”
