Water Waves is working hard to reduce the ecological footprint of greenhouse farming. In the summer of 2020 Water Waves was able to make a step towards a launching customer. An important step in the development of the company. But this is not the beginning, and certainly not the end of the intensive cooperation between Water Waves and WaterCampus Leeuwarden.
The story of Water Waves, founded by entrepreneur Mateo Mayer, starts around a decade ago. Together with Wetsus he developed an innovative, ultrasound-based technology. Using sonic vibrations the technology is able to break up particles and disinfect wastewater.
Mateo discovered that the process could be made even better and more efficient by combining it with other techniques. In 2014 he teamed up with Lamp-Ion, an other Wetsus spin-off.
Water Waves conducted extensive testing at the Water Application Centre in Leeuwarden. Two prototype reactors were tested. The first was a batch reactor, followed by a continuous flow reactor. Part of the development costs for the technology was financed by the VIA 2018 Plus grant program run by SNN (the Northern Netherlands Cooperative).
Since the summer of 2020 Water Waves has ben testing its all-in-one concept at a launching customer in the Frisian town Berlikum. Wastewater is disinfected, pesticides are removed from effluent and algae are destroyed in rainwater tanks of thousand cubic metre . For this project Water Waves teamed up with two other organizations that are closely related to the WaterCampus: Appsen, also a Wetsus spin-off and Aquacolor Sensors.
The step to the launching customer was mede possible for Water Waves through a voucher from the international VIDA program, a program run by Water Alliance.
As part of the NEW project we made a video about the support that Water Waves received.
WaterCampus forms a chain of links between education, specialised research, test programmes, specialist laboratories, an application centre, demo sites and, last but not least, marketing, matchmaking and successful business, called the WaterCampus Innovation Chain. In an article about Water Waves, published in the beginning of 2021. The next picture from this article makes it clearly visible how water waves is supported in the different phases of the innovation chain.
Interested to become successful too?
Please contact Ronald Wielinga our manager entrepreneurship via +31 6 121 38 876 or r.wielinga@watercampus.nl or read more below.
As a result of the VIDA project, Water Waves has launched the Hortibatch. The Hortibatch works on the principle of oxidation with UV-C radiation, hydrogen peroxide and ultrasound. The crop protection agents are oxidized with the UV-C radiation and the hydrogen peroxide. The ultrasonic sound amplifies this process and at the same time ensures that the quartz protection tubes remain clean thanks to the sound vibrations. Optical sensors monitor the process. The Hortibatch works fully automatically and can both purify drain water for drainage and disinfection. Via the local network and a cloud service, everything can be followed in real time and the history can be viewed. Thanks to patented ultrasound technology with frequency sweep and the batch process, the Hortibatch is energy efficient and the footprint of the entire installation is limited to a Euro pallet of 120 X 80 cm. Interested in the product? Please contact Mateo Mayer.
