Aquatech Innovation Award 2023 winners announced

The Aquatech Innovation Award recognises world-class innovation and technologies that have the potential to disrupt the global water market.

Acknowledging world-class innovations and the latest technological developments, this year’s award received 92 innovative entries– the highest in history.

After an independent and detailed review led by jury chairman Professor Cees Buisman, Scientific Director of Wetsus, the European centre of excellence for sustainable water technology, Aquatech is pleased to announce that the overall winner of the 2023 Innovation Award is the EDBM ElectroMembrane Stack from REDstack BV.

Innovation stacks up

The Dutch start-up was recognised by the judging committee for playing a pivotal role in helping to scale up electroactive membranes and the ability to “connect multiple systems”.

"Many companies develop membranes but not with scale," said jury chairman Professor Cees Buisman. "Including the electrical field on the stacks, with scale, is innovative and one of the reasons we decided this innovation should be the overall winner."

The platform technology stacks can be used for various resource recovery applications, including carbon capture, ammonia recovery from waste streams and lithium recovery. Potential end users for the solution include the food and beverage market, oil & gas, energy & power, agriculture and municipal water.

Category winners

A total of 14 innovative technologies were selected from the expert jury, from which the category winners and the overall winner were announced during the opening of the flagship Aquatech Amsterdam event.

In total, there were five categories: Wastewater Treatment; Water Supply (drinking water, clean water, including point of use/entry); Transport and Process & Control; Green Chemicals for Water Technology and Innovation not to market yet.

The category winners are as followed:

Wastewater Treatment

• EDBM ElectroMembrane Stack - REDstack BV

Water Supply (drinking water, clean water, including point of use/entry)

• ClipR - Factorylab BV

Transport and Process & Control

• Inline Pipeline Inspection Dashboard – Acquaint

Green Chemicals for Water Technology

• NEAT - Sudoc LLC

Innovation not to market yet

• Blue Energy - REDstack BV

Continued inspiration to solve water challenges

"We are excited the Award attracted a record amount of entries," the Scientific Director of Wetsus added. "It's a positive sign that innovation and invention continue in the water industry.”

Reflecting on the quality of the overall innovations, Buisman concluded: "Two years ago, the jury thought we had witnessed all the innovations in the water sector, but the awards continue to surprise us!
“It's inspiring to see so many people engaged in the water sector to work on a better world."

The Aquatech Community Award goes to...

For the second time, the Aquatech Community Award was organised. Next to the official Jury, water tech professionals voted for their own favourite innovation – the popular vote. The nominee with the highest number of votes is Sanipur S.p.A. with ‘Zero B’. They are the winner of the Aquatech Community Award 2023.