Water innovation beyond desal: the new opportunities?

In the past two weeks alone, the Cleantech Group's reporters have spotted quite a bit of activity in the water industry, underscoring again the importance of water as a cleantech category.

Recent stories include Grundfos six-month test of a new compact wastewater treatment technology; Coca-Cola’s 16 rain water harvesting projects in India; Brunel University spin out, WaterBoxs’ disaster relief efforts and H20 Innovation India joint venture between Chembond Chemical and H20 Innovation.

To boot, Cleantech Group is also featuring water leaders at its upcoming San Francisco Forum (more info here): NanoH20 (confirmed), Microvi Biotechnologies (confirmed) and HydroPoint Data Systems (pending).

Since 2005, however, the share of cleantech venture investment in water technologies has been on the decline, yet the fundamental premise of water investing appears to remain strong: demand is high and supply is low.

And consider the following notable statistics, such as:

1. Of the trillions of gallons of water discharged by U.S. industry, only 10 percent is treated for re-use, and the fact that
2. The global market for water treatment is up to $58 billion annually

It may seem strange that we don’t see more venture investments in water. But does that mean there aren't commercial opportunities in water?

As the Cleantech Group works more with corporate customers (more info here), it finds many of them care very deeply and are close to innovation in water technologies. Behind the scenes, there's a resounding sentiment of “we very much care about water innovation”.

A deep dive into the water industry would likely uncover counter-intuitive market opportunities to the side of the center stage occupied by desalination. As excitement around the treatment of brackish water continues (an effort at increasing water supply), there is a case to be made for water re-use and conservation—yet another type of efficiency trend so important in the cleantech industry.

Those interested in the water industry are advised to pay attention to water sector leaders winning various cleantech awards. These include:

1. The Cleantech Group's Global Cleantech 100 award (including AqWise, Epuramat, Oasys, Inge, etc)
2. Winners of The Artemis Project Top 50 water technologies (including Aquaporin, Lesico CleanTech, ProWell Technologies, etc.), and finalists of
3. The Imagine H20 Prize (Puralytics, Fruition Sciences, Rainwater HOG, etc), to name a few.

The water industry involves a complicated web of technology providers in water & wastewater treatment, turnkey system providers and smart water providers (technologies that focus on water conservation)—all of which serve users along the verticals: commercial/residential, industry, utilities and agriculture.

And in this complicated web will be tremendous value.

Stay tuned for more on water.