The Grass Can Be Greener - Update on Clean Tech

Earlier this month, Green Tech Media posted a great update byMeir Ukeles of Israel Cleantech Ventures on the growing popularity of Israeli Green Tech companies.

I summarized the main points from this report, but I recommend reading the full article.

• On October 30, Israel will host a cleantech conference cosponsored by the Cleantech Venture Network, Ernst & Young, Morrison & Foerster, and Israel Cleantech Ventures, as part of the larger WATEC water technologies week event.
  
  
• Why is Israel is emerging as an important hub of cleantech innovation?

1. Background: Fueled by acute constraints in natural resources, Israel has spawned a number of successful water technology and alternative energy companies, including recognized names in drip irrigation (Netafim), desalination (IDE), geothermal energy (Ormat), fuel cells (Medis), and solar thermal energy (Solel/Luz).
   
2. Israel’s academic institutions in these areas have led to world class cleantech capabilities and more than 350 active cleantech companies in Israel today.
   
3. The Human Asset: The roots of this growing community of cleantech entrepreneurs can be traced to:
• established or “legacy” industrial companies active in energy, water, chemicals etc.,
• academic institutions with long histories as research leaders in energy and water sciences
  
• “crossover” initiatives or entrepreneurs moving into cleantech from traditional areas of Israeli technology leadership such as power electronics, semiconductors, and even biotech and agritech.
• founders or key members of some of the most recognized names in Israel’s high tech world (Checkpoint, Comverse, Chromatis, Scitex, and many others) now involved in launching cleantech companies.
• Israeli cleantech companies must overcome the same challenges faced by counterparts in other countries, including the challenge of penetrating often risk-averse customers in the energy and water markets, managing cash burn rates against long sales and adoption cycles, etc. However, Israeli companies do operate under some unique constraints, starting with their distance from and historical lack of familiarity with many of the key customers and channel partners for their products and technologies.
• Israel’s most important resource is its entrepreneurs – a seemingly inexhaustible supply of talented business people and technologists who excel at looking beyond traditional ways of solving market problems and inefficiencies.

That, coupled with the truly colossal demand for technologies to address the world’s insatiable need for clean, accessible energy, water and air, is what is already putting Israel on the map as a global cleantech player.

AqWise Performs the Water Miracle

Israeli headquartered AqWise provides advanced biological wastewater treatment technologies, recycling a simple concept that has been used for years in fish aquariums.

AqWise uses a patented technology called AGAR® (Attached Growth Airlift Reactor), which increases capacity and nutrient removal in waste water treatment plants, utilizing advanced bio film technology. The technology has been described as "building condominiums for Bacteria".

According to the company website, the AGAR process uses a polymer cylinder that, when placed in wastewater treatment ponds, clusters microbes that consume contaminants. The water can then be safely discarded or used to irrigate fields.

The AGAR process can be used in intensive municipal plants and extensive lagoons, from fish-farms to food industries, from pulp and paper plants to chemical plants. The process allows to expand existing waste water treatment plants while using the same biological reactor, therefore, it reduces the cost of upgrading, the project duration, and the area required for additional reactors.

AqWise's first effective plant was completed for the Israeli town of Yavneh and it processes the total needs of its community. The company's products are implemented in over 20 sewage treatment plants in the US, Canada and Latin America.

AqWise is led by CEO Eytan Levy (42), the founder and a Partner at Israel CleanTech Ventures. The company was founded in 2000, has 18 employees and received a $4M round in 2006. Recently Elron aquired 34% of AqWise's shares.

Take a sneak peak at AqWise's purifying process