Why we invested in Aquafortus

Industrial wastewater is a nightmare and a significant production bottleneck for almost every tough industry, including oil and gas, mining, biotech, food production, pharmaceuticals. These industries require significant process water, but the effluent discharge - about 360bn cubic meters of wastewater (2021) - is heavy, toxic, and increasingly expensive to deal with. The challenge is that as industry’s thirst for more water intensifies, access to water is rapidly dwindling. Water in the Andes, Australia, and the Permian are all under threat. So creating cyclical production loops that maximize the reuse of each molecule of water over and over again is critical to make these vital industries truly resilient.

Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) has long been the wastewater treatment dream. Isolate all the water from the contaminants, and only have to deal with dry solids. Dreamland. But current processes basically require users to boil off the water and use even more energy to crystallize what remains. It’s like trying to empty your bath by putting a giant fire underneath it so you can scrape off what’s left and put it in the bin. It’s expensive, inefficient, energy-intensive and cumbersome. But what if you could achieve the same outcome with materials science?

Aquafortus is a step change in ZLD, taking the water out of the waste instead of the waste out of the water. Their two-step non-thermal chemical exchange process uses one liquid chemical to remove the water from the waste and a second to reverse the process, isolating clean water and allowing the original chemical to be reused. The process is regenerative, allowing industries to reuse their water over and over again. We’re thrilled to be part of this sustainable cycle of water reuse. Daryl, Jessica and the entire Aquafortus team, thanks for having us onboard through BIV’s investment. Here’s why we did it.

Capabilities of the tech vs the status quo

Aquafortus developed a non-thermal, fully regenerable zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technology for high salinity wastewaters to continuously recover clean water and reduce operating costs of treatment. It achieves 99% water recovery at a 60-70% reduction in cost. The tech operates in two stages. First, massively hydrophilic agent binds to the water with everything else crystallizing out (true ZLD). Second, a reagent reverses the process, with the water moving to a simple reverse osmosis filtration stage before being fit for any use. Plus the reagent is recyclable. That leads to 60% overall savings, 70% reduction in energy, and true ZLD in a scalable process.

Exceptional technical team

Daryl (CEO) has 12+ years in industry, including previously founding another wastewater company. Jessica (COO) brings 13+ years in government, startups and the private sector. Shan (CTO) has spent almost two decades as an environmental engineer at Veolia, BioLargo and GreenTech Asia. Their advisory board is stellar with experts from Veolia, Dow, MicrodynNadir and Nalco. The considerable technical progress they’ve made with a significant patent portfolio to boot is reflective of what happens when you pull together an exceptional group of individuals.

Demand-pull

Aquafortus is the subject of a great deal of inbound interest from the industrial sector, from oil and gas, mining and metals, power… the list is long. They all KNOW they need ZLD (BHP may be about to incur a $5bn damages claim because they don’t have it), it’s a question of when the economics are right. Aquafortus costs 30% - 50% less in CAPEX and 60% less in OPEX. And Aquafortus doesn’t just produce clean water and make their customers’ lives easier, the salts they extract are mineral and metal rich, including lithium and magnesium.  

Exceptional unit economics

This is big hardware, and hardware is hard, but a multi-million dollar deployment leads to a short payback period and the predictable retention of your license to operate. If you’re barred from operating in the Permian seismic zone because there’s already been too much wastewater pumped into the ground, and you’re missing out on the oil and gas price spike as a result, eliminating your wastewater problem is a BIG deal.

It also helps to have the right partners. Aquafortus have had superb long-term backing from groups such as NZGCP and K1W1, and it’s been a pleasure to have DCVC lead this round. The future of the company is in excellent hands. Thanks Daryl, Jessica and the entire team at Aquafortus for letting us tag along.