Aquaporin in milestone collaboration to secure clean tap water

The Danish water technology company Aquaporin has entered into a collaboration with Aqualia, the fourth largest water management company in Europe, which will promote and use Aquaporin’s biomimetic membrane elements at municipal water treatment plants to improve their efficiency and economics.

Aqualia serves nearly 43.5 million people living in 17 different countries across the globe with clean water. In their constant drive for improved performance, they turned to Aquaporin’s biomimetic membrane elements to increase the efficiency of their operations. With Aquaporin membranes, Aqualia will be empowered to treat municipal water on a broad scale with either higher water flux or lower energy input, increased rejection of contaminants, improved permeate water quality, and enhanced cost-efficiency.

“We are experiencing an increased interest and preference for biomimetic solutions from the municipalities where we are present, and Aquaporin will help to meet these expectations. The scope of the collaboration is for Aqualia to primarily use Aquaporin membranes in certain applications when they help achieve the best water quality for our customers in a sustainable manner,” says Victor Monsalvo, Aqualia Head of Eco-efficiency Area.

Projects in the pipeline

Aqualia has new full-scale municipal drinking water treatment plants in the pipeline where Aquaporin membranes were successfully tested.

”We are pleased to help Aqualia deliver clean drinking water to municipalities all over the world with our biomimetic membranes. After working together for over a year, we are very glad to see our efforts turn to commercial success. We expect to see the demand for biomimetic membranes rise as municipalities become increasingly aware of the technology and its merits in terms of efficiency and sustainability. Our collaboration with Aqualia prepares us for that,” says Matt Boczkowski, Aquaporin CEO.

20 % better performance

The decision for Aquaporin and Aqualia to enter into a long-term partnership is based on the positive outcome of four pilot projects in different locations in Spain. For instance, Aquaporin and Aqualia ran a pilot project where a high level of nitrate in the municipal drinking water limited the consumption by certain population groups for years. The results from the pilot showed a 20 % performance increase when using Aquaporin’s biomimetic membrane elements to remove nitrate compared to conventional membranes, which assured the citizens a solution had been found to a problem that had long been of concern to them. Similar improvements in performance were observed for the removal of sulfates and fluorides and brackish water desalination. As a result, the two companies are also partnering within the EU H2020 project REsilient WAter Innovation for Smart Economy –www.REWAISE.eu– to create a smart water ecosystem that will secure sufficient water supplies in the future.

About Aqualia

Aqualia is the water management company owned by the citizen services group FCC (51%) and by the Australian ethical fund IFM Investors (49%). By population served, the company is among the top ten in the world, according to the latest Global Water Intelligence (GWI) ranking (December 2022). In May 2023, Aqualia was recognized by GWI with the award “Water Company of the Year”, highlighting its innovation in every direction.

The company is positioned as a reference brand in the water sector, developing avant-garde, highly specialized, and innovative solutions. Thanks to a committed human team, with great experience, Aqualia constantly seeks to improve efficiency in production processes and the optimization of resources, and with a clear orientation towards the citizen thanks to transparent management methods.

About Aquaporin

Aquaporin is an innovative water technology company dedicated to making clean water available everywhere without using plastic bottles. Their proprietary technology, Aquaporin Inside®, is based on Nobel Prize-winning research and uses aquaporins – nature’s own water purifiers – to remove pesticides, viruses, bacteria, and other unwanted compounds. Aquaporin works with customers and partners around the globe to meet the increasing demand for more sustainable water purification and enhance drinking water quality and accessibility.