Past winners

About 2022 winner Ferr-tech

Ferr-Tech is the global market leader in the field of Ferrate(VI) applications for industrial (waste)-water treatment. Through a patented process, Ferr-Tech makes the use of Ferrate(VI) products available to the (waste)water industry. From its headquarters in Meppel, FerrTech runs the water lab and provides high-quality water testing, experimentation and analyses for customers. For more information about Ferr-Tech, please visit www.ferr-tech.com.

Ferr-Tech is the only company in the world that produces Ferrate(VI) in a stable and preservable form. Previously, this was impossible. Thanks to pioneering research, Ferr-Tech has developed a unique and patented process to do just that. Unlike commonly used chemicals for water treatment, Ferrate(VI) is environmentally friendly. It produces no harmful byproducts. This promising technology called FerSol is the most powerful and green oxidant for wastewater treatment. It is a chemical that is 63% stronger than chlorine. Ferr-Tech uses it to clean wastewater in the industry to enable water reusage, as well as to clean crates in the Food & Beverage industry or plastic flakes in polymer recycling plants, for example.

Contribution to the circular water economy

Ferr-Tech’s product, FerSol, makes residual water so pure that much of it can be returned to the production process. It reacts with dissolved substances, making them sink. As a side effect, it eliminates some bacteria, fungi and viruses. Thanks to FerSol’s powerful oxidation, the particles of the residual product bind better together, leaving less sludge. The remaining sludge is also much more compact, making it easier to dispose of. Sometimes the sludge can even be reused as raw material. Thusly the whole process contributes to the circular water economy.

About 2020 winner Samotics

In 2015, Semiotic labs launched a mission to eliminate unplanned downtime. Since then, Samotics evolved their predictive maintenance system, SAM4, into a robust and high-accuracy failure detection technology. Today, they are active across five continents for more than 80 customers helping them reduce risk, lower costs, save energy and put an end to unplanned downtime.

Founder Simon Jagers: “Winning the WIS Award was a great honor, it’s one of the most recognized innovation prizes in the water sector, what it meant to us, on a personal level, it felt like recognition. We’ve been work so hard for the past five six years on this new technology, and initially people said it can’t be done. So at some point when you have the team to actually deliver consistent quality and you can share that story of satisfied customers, a technology that is of hulling big diffidence but it also has a underlying structure that can scale globally, that those where some of the main reasons the WIS award was awarded to us is very gratifying, it really feels like a recognition of our persistence if you will.

And I think more of an external benefit is obviously the fact that the WIS Award is something people are looking towards for innovations that can yield benefits in the here and now, today. It’s not awarding innovations for the sake of innovation, it needs to be TRL 9, production ready, ready to to work in real world situations.”

The video is 2020 WIS Winner Samotics pitch, back then Semiotic Labs.

Samotics won the 2020 WIS Award, generating international attention and increasing market demand. The cooperation with Anglian Water may be expanded, and other markets in other countries are also showing an interest.

Testimonial by Anglian Water about innovation SAM4 by WIS winner Samotic Labs

About the 2018 winner Hydraloop

After installing one of the first prototypes of a decentral water recycling system in his own home, Arthur Valkieser became invested in water recycling. Valkieser spent years of research and development to create a compact, affordable, stylish, easy-to-use, low maintenance device that saves 45% on water usage and sewage emission, but also saves energy and reduces carbon footprint. ​​The challenge was to create a system that drastically reduces water usage without compromise on living comfort or personal hygiene. He brought first Hydraloop to market in 2017: Within three years, Hydraloop installed its innovative systems in countries throughout Europe and Africa and gained international recognition for its sustainable approach.

Founder Arthur Valkieser started Hydraloop based on an insight: “It’s absurd that in the 21st century people still keep flushing their toilets with precious water, as it is becoming scarcer every day.”

At CES 2020, Hydraloop launched globally and had its worldwide breakthrough. Hydraloop was awarded as ‘Best of Innovation’ in the category ’Sustainability, Eco-design, and Smart Energy’ – and also won ‘Best Start-Up’, ‘Best Sustainable Product’, and the overall award ‘Best of the Best’, beating more than 4000 competitors in different categories.

“The WIS Award really makes a difference in the world, also because of the large network of the Water Alliance. By winning, we were able to promote our concept (the Hydraloop, red.) worldwide. The publicity support we received as a winner was enormous and the opportunity to present Hydraloop via the WEFTEC and Aquatech gave us a huge acceleration in marketing our product, ” states WIS winner 2018 Sabine Stuiver, CMO of Hydraloop Systems B.V.

About 2016 winner Fleetcleaner