Where Canada Shines: water tech
GRANT BUCKLER – THE GLOBE AND MAIL
According to the World Health Organization, more than 3.5 million people die each year from water-related diseases worldwide. But clean water is a problem Canadian technologies can help solve. This country has a significant number of companies providing technology for cleaning water, either before it is used for drinking or before it returns to the environment after use in households or industry.
“There is a solid capacity for managing water and water technology in Canada,” says Rick Findlay, vice-chair of the Canadian Water Network, a water research group that is part of the Network of Centres of Excellence program. “We do play on the world stage – and we could play a bigger role, of course.”
Canada’s strengths in this area didn’t grow because we faced greater challenges – countries such as Israel and Australia are shorter of water than we are. In fact, the opposite may be partly true.
Industry grew up around the Great Lakes precisely because of the availability of water, observes David Henderson, managing director of XPV Capital Corp., which invests in water companies. When legislation started forcing those companies to clean up their wastewater, a significant market for water purification resulted, creating what Mr. Henderson calls the Great Lakes cluster: the largest concentration of water-related companies in the world, in an area that includes southern Ontario, as well as U.S. states bordering the lakes.
Canada has many water purification companies, both around the Great Lakes and elsewhere. Here are four examples.
H20 INNOVATION
Ten to 15 years ago, water treatment mainly involved allowing water to stand in lagoons while impurities settled out. Today, says Frédéric Dugré, president, chief executive and co-founder of H2O Innovation Inc. in Quebec City, filtering the water using special membranes is increasingly popular.
“The membrane itself has tremendously improved – in terms of reliability, in terms of robustness, in terms of the quality of fabrication,” Mr. Dugré says.
Membranes also play a growing role in pre-treating drinking water because of the realization that chlorine – once seen as the cure-all – reacts with certain organic matter to produce carcinogens. Membranes can help remove the organic matter before chlorination, Mr. Dugré says.
H2O Innovation doesn’t make the membranes themselves, but designs and builds membrane filtration systems. The 10-year-old company earns more than half its roughly $28 million in annual revenue in the U.S., and 25 to 30 per cent in Canada, with the rest overseas. Last year, H2O set up H2O Innovation India, a joint venture with a local partner that now has 26 employees and revenues of around $4.2 million.
KONTEK ECOLOGY SYSTEMS
If it cleans water, Kontek Ecology Systems Inc. probably builds it. The Burlington, Ont. company has built many different water treatment systems, from conventional precipitation technology to membrane filtration to microbiological treatment. And those systems are in use from Canada to Abu Dhabi. Glen Russell, president of Kontek, says the 30-employee firm’s customers include the Royal Canadian Mint – one of its first clients – as well as Fortune 500 companies such as Qantas, Black & Decker, United Technologies and Magna International.
Kontek focuses on corporate customers that want to purify water used in their manufacturing processes before releasing it back into nature. With an active research and development program, Kontek has developed techniques for removing such contaminants as mercury, gold and chrome – and recovering the more valuable elements – from water.
Mr. Russell says Kontek suffered during the recession, but is now hiring, and expanding its 25,000-square-foot headquarters in Burlington. Kontek also has a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Niagara Falls, Ont. This year’s sales are up about 400 per cent over 2010, and Mr. Russell anticipates revenues between $12 and $15 million.
IMBRIUM SYSTEMS
Mississauga, Ont.-based Imbrium Systems Inc. focuses on cleaning water that runs down storm sewers.
“Eighty per cent of pollution in our lakes and streams is due to storm water,” says Dr. Reagan Davidson, Imbrium regional manager. Imbrium licenses three products – called the Stormceptor, Jellyfish and SorbtiveFilter – to concrete-forming companies that incorporate them in drainage systems.
Joe Monteith – whose son, Scott, is now Imbrium’s chief executive – devised the original Stormceptor when he worked for the Region of Peel and wanted a way to remove oil and chemicals from water running off industrial properties. Its design creates a whirlpool that sucks impurities down into a lower chamber – they can’t get back up, but clean water can.
The Jellyfish uses filtration “tentacles” to trap fine sediment. The SorbtiveFilter, Imbrium’s newest product, also removes a variety of sediments and impurities and is particularly good at catching phosphorus, which is a growing concern because it can cause excessive algae and weed growth in lakes.
Imbrium has sold more than 40,000 units globally, Scott Monteith says, and holds more than 30 patents.
OSTARA NUTRIENT RECOVERY TECHNOLOGIES
Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. recovers phosphorus and ammonia from sewage by exposing the water to magnesium, which reacts with the phosphorus and ammonia to create crystals of magnesium ammonium phosphate. Those crystals, as it happens, make good fertilizer, which the six-year-old Vancouver company sells under the brand name Crystal Green.
Spun off from research in the civil engineering department of the University of British Columbia, Ostara built its first demonstration system in Edmonton and has since installed commercial systems in Portland, Ore., Suffolk, Va., and York, Penn. Others are in the design stages, including one for Thames Water just outside London, England, says Philip Abrary, Ostara’s chief executive.
Ostara will either build a treatment facility at its own expense and charge a municipality to operate it, or build it at the expense of the municipality which then owns and runs it. Either way, the municipality gets a share of the proceeds from fertilizer sales.
While most of Ostara’s initial business has been in the U.S., the company recently hired a managing director for Europe and hopes to expand there, Mr. Abrary says. Ostara has about 35 employees today; Mr. Abrary would not disclose its revenues.
PDF download: 20110621-CTV
Crystal Green® Answers the Need for a High-Efficiency Granular Phosphate Fertilizer that Protects the Environment

Ostara and Murphy Partner to deliver part of Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Project for Irish Water

Ostara Raises US$20 Million to Acquire Strategic Assets to Scale Up Crystal Green® Fertilizer Production

Ostara and Oakley Sign Letter of Intent for Purchase of Oakley’s St. Louis Granulation Facility and Long-term Terminal Services

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. & City of Atlanta Announce Official Launch of Nutrient Recovery Facility

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. and ICL Specialty Fertilizers Expand Distribution of Recycled Nutrients into New Territories

Ostara Provides Corporate Update: Additional Growth Capital from Equity Funding and New Credit Facility; New Board Director, Monty Bayer

Reimagining the Future of Phosphates at Symphos 2019; Phosphorus Recovery, Sustainability and the Circular Economy.

Ostara Raises up to US$16.5 Million with Existing Investors to Support Production Scale-up and Accelerate Global Growth

Ostara Enters into Long-Term Granulation Tolling Agreement in Response to Increasing Crystal Green Sales Demand

Shafdan Wastewater Treatment Plant will be the first in the region to install an Ostara Nutrient Recovery Facility

City of St. Cloud to Install Ostara’s Nutrient Recovery Technology as Key Part of the City’s Nutrient Recovery and Reuse Project

Ostara to Deliver City of Atlanta Nutrient Recovery Facility Through Unique Alternative Finance Model

Ellen MacArthur Foundation | Case Study: Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies – Closing the Nutrient Loop

Treatment Plant Operator | Water Environment Federation Presents Awards for Operational and Design Excellence

The MWRD of Greater Chicago’s Nutrient Recovery Facility earns Top Honor from Water Environment Federation

Executive Voice Publishing | The Best of Canada Report: Honoring Canada’s 150 year Legacy of Commercial Success (as seen in Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal)

SDTC SUCCESS STORY | Partnering for real results. Meeting environmental goals. Moving cleantech to market.

Black & Veatch | World’s largest nutrient recovery facility produces valuable, environmentally friendly fertilizer

AQUA STRATEGY | A growth opportunity – how recovery of phosphorus from wastewater is bringing success for Ostara

ESEM | Wastewater converted to ecofriendly fertilizer with the help of dewatering, classifying screeners

VANCOUVER SUN | Vancouver’s Ostara aims to harvest from municipal waste rather than mining phosphorus

WATER BRIEFING | Dutch Waterboard opens Europe’s first nutrient recovery facility at Amersfoort WwTW

DUTCH WATER SECTOR | Next-step sludge treatment integrates three advanced technologies at wwtp Amersfoort, the Netherlands

SUSTAINABLE BRANDS | Chemical Plant, Nutrient Recovery Facility Bring Circular Economy One Step Closer

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and Ostara Open World’s Largest Nutrient Recovery Facility to Help Recover Phosphorus and Protect Mississippi River Basin

Dutch Waterboard Vallei en Veluwe and Ostara to produce high-value fertiliser, Crystal Green® at Amersfoort WWTP

Ostara is named in the 2015 Global Cleantech 100: Recognized as a Pioneer in Shaping the Future of Resource Recovery

ACWA Services partners with Ostara to offer Phosphorus Recovery Revenue Stream for UK Water Companies

Ostara is Named in the 2014 Global Cleantech 100 for 6th Straight year: Recognized as Market Leader in Waste to Wealth Technology

Ostara Sees Improved Dewaterability and Reduced Biosolids Production with Waste-activated Sludge Stripping Technology

Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District and Ostara Help Dane County Lead the Way in Reducing Nutrient Pollution

What operational benefits and political motivation persuade utilities to install nutrient recovery systems?

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies wins Technology Green 15™ Award at the 2013 Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ Awards

Come, friendly bombs, don’t fall on Slough. It’s doing good for humans now: Berkshire town to launch £2m nutrient-recovery reactor

BBC World News Horizons explores why human waste is one of biggest public health issues facing world today

Ostara Named to 2013 Global Cleantech 100 List: Recognized as Market Leader in Technology with World-Changing Impact

Ostara Named to 2013 Global Cleantech 100 List: Recognized as Market Leader in Technology with World-Changing Impact

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Discuss Nutrient Recovery’s Crucial Role in Combatting Water Pollution

Black & Veatch and Ostara to Design-Build New Nutrient Recovery System for World’s Largest Water Reclamation Plant

Black & Veatch and Ostara to Design-Build New Nutrient Recovery System for World’s Largest Water Reclamation Plant

Clean Water Services and Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Open World’s Largest Municipal Nutrient Recovery Facility

Hampton Roads Sanitation District and Ostara Win National Council of Public-Private Partnerships Award

Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District and Ostara Partner to Install Commercial Nutrient Recovery Facility

Virginia Wastewater Treatment Plant First In Chesapeake Bay Watershed to Recover Nutrients and Transform Them into “Green” Commercial Fertilizer

Media Alert: Unveiling of New Nutrient Recovery Facility That Will Protect Chesapeake Bay, with Keynote Speaker Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

World’s Only Slow Release, Renewable Fertiliser Begins Commercial Production – Crystal Green® Proven Effective for Turf, Nursery, Specialty Markets

HRSD Treatment Plant to Build Full-Scale Nutrient Recycling Facility Nutrients will be Recycled into ‘Green’ Commercial Fertilizer

Severn Trent First in Europe to Recycle Nutrients into “Environmentally Friendly” Commercial Fertiliser

VantagePoint Venture Partner’s Portfolio Companies Take Top Rankings in Guardian’s Global CleanTech 100

Oregon Wastewater Treatment Plant First in the U.S. to Recycle Nutrients Into ‘Green’ Commercial Fertilizer

SFPUC and Ostara Demonstrate Innovative Technology That Recycles Harmful Sewage Byproduct to Environmentally-safe Fertilizer

SFPUC and Ostara Demonstrate Innovative Technology That Recycles Harmful Sewage Byproduct to Environmentally-Safe Fertilizer

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Raises U.S. $10.5 Million to Accelerate Commercialization of CleanTech Water Treatment Process

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc.: Oregon Wastewater Treatment Plant Is the First in U.S. to Recycle Nutrients Into “Green” Commercial Fertilizer

Edmonton Reveals World’s First Industrial Scale Sewage Treatment Facility to Recycle Nutrients Into Environmentally-Safe Commercial Fertilizer
