Westt

Government invests two ton in sustainable fish food

de Groot — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:44:20 +0000

The Government programme Fryslân Fernijt invests €200.000,- in TailTec, a company in sustainable fish food.

The company is recently founded: according to the Chamber of Commerce the foundation took place on the 24^th of February. Tailtec works with a patent of the institute of water technology Wetsus in Leeuwarden.

Fresh water worms can serve as a fodder for professional fish farmers. The worms clean lightly polluted water and would contribute to ‘the conservation of biodiversity in the world’s oceans’.
For example, breeders of tilapia use fish flour at this moment: the production of one kilograms of fish requires one kilograms of fish flour. The money of Fryslân Fernijt is submitted by Europe, the Dutch Government and the province. The province of Fryslân hopes that TailTec will create new jobs. The start-up company cannot tell more about this subject. Director Gerda van der Meer was ‘ under water’ this morning.

Source: Leeuwarder Courant, March 14, 2012

Aqana comes up as winner of the WIT-award!

de Groot — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:15:36 +0000

‘An innovation project that from a healthy ambition has become a full fledged product with high international potential.’ With this words from the jury report Aqana and her DANA-technology became the winner of the WIT-award.

Three innovative projects, Aqana, Water Insight with the WISP-3 and the IRIS project of Hellebrekers Technieken and Capilix were nominated for the award by an expert jury. In three pitches the entrepreneurs were challenged to present their project for the audience. The ultimate winner of the WIT-award was chosen by the public.

The presentation of the WIT-award was part of the meeting ‘a final message of the ‘Mannen van de WIT’ (Men of the Water Innovation Team) on Thursday the 16^th of February.

Source: Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP), February 20, 2012

Proteins from worms as a food source

de Groot — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:02:00 +0000

The production of worms as a contribution to the food production for humans: it sounds strange and perhaps for some bizarre or weird. Do we have to eat worms te survive? The answer is no. However, worms can ensure the production of important proteins and other nutrients for the strongly expanding world population, according to the founders of the new company TailTec in Leeuwarden.
Spokeswoman Dr. Hellen Elissen: ‘ the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, predicts that the current need for nutrition in 2050 will increase 200% with a world population that will grow to nine billion people. We think that we can contribute to the solution of that problem by efficiently producing new animal proteins, in this case worms, which we cultivate on vegetable waste streams. ‘
Elissen, who studied biology in Groningen and then received her Ph.d. in Wageningen on a topic in the environmental technology, is besides entrepreneur part-time employed at the institute for water technology Wetsus in Leeuwarden. TailTec is a spin-off of this institute, which focuses on combining technology and science and tries to realize that by letting companies participate in the research. The companies can use or inheritance the generated knowledge.
The technology applied by TailTec is based on reactors with a low energy and water use that convert low-grade residual flows from the food industry into high-quality animal nutrition (invertebrates). These worms contain more than 60% protein and other functional ingredients. They are applicable as fish or cattle feed for example.
‘In this way we bring nutrients back into the food chain and we do not waste any food‘, says Elissen.
Potential customers of the new company are manufacturers of residual flows from, for example, the food industry and on the other hand fish farmers and producers of animal feed. Initially, the worms are being sold within the ornamental fish sector.
The new entrepreneurs have lots of support from a network in Leeuwarden and Wageningen that aims to assist start-up companies. ‘This means for example that you can get support when writing a business plan, start-ups can get a loan under favorable conditions, you can rent an office for a low price and there are plenty of network meetings ‘, according to a satisfied Elissen.
She recommends new starters to focus on one particular product. They should not try to do everything at once. And: don’t think from the point of view of your technology, but especially focus on the needs of your future customers.

Source: Technisch Weekblad, February 19, 2012

Aqana presents new ground breaking technique for waste water treatment

de Groot — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:19:40 +0000

During the Watec exhibition in Tel Aviv Aqana BV was officially launched. Aqana BV is a joint venture between Dutch Water technologies BV from Leeuwarden and Aqwise from Israel. The new water technology company Aqana is located on the Watercampus in Leeuwarden. Under the name DANA, Aqana is bringing an innovative biological waste water treatment technology to the market. Simultaneously, Aqana will be launching DACS, an innovative and economic breakthrough for anaerobic water treatment.

The DANA technology stands for ‘Dynamic ANaerobic Aerobic’ system. The new technology has the big advantage of being cheaper than other systems, more robust and can easily be embedded into existing infrastructure. This means that with a much smaller investment than previously required, a faster and easier full biological waste water treatment can be implemented that produces energy in the form of biogas. This biogas can in turn be used as a replacement for natural gas in for example the production process. The management and operation of an Aqana installation is easier and requires less attention than other systems. Aqana installations are straight forward, stable and reliable ‘energy plants’.

As part of the DANA technology, the ‘DACS’ concept is launched at the same time. DACS stands for Down-flow Anaerobic Carrier based System. Advantages are that it is simple and robust and can be inexpensively applied to a system that is entirely focused on the anaerobic part of DANA technology. DACS is especially designed to apply the anaerobic process in a simple tank. Also existing tanks can use the DACS concept with very little modification. With this, Aqana introduces the cheapest anaerobic waste water technology in terms of both investment and operation.

The technique has been developed over the last four years by the Israeli company Aqwise, Dutch Water Techologies BV from Leeuwarden and the Noordelijke hogeschool Leeuwarden (NHL). The development was supported by a ‘Eureka R&D subsidy’.

The technology is based on an anaerobic and aerobe sludge growing on synthetic base material: a smart synthetic tube on which the bacteria grow. The ‘sludge carrier technology’ was brought to the project by Israeli company Aqwise. The anaerobe treatment technology comes from the Dutch Water Technology BV.

The NHL supported the research through process engineers. They assisted in the engineering of the test installation andthe execution of the tests.

Aqana is now working on the design of further installations in the World and the implementation of their first client in Germany. “The expectation is that more assignments will follow”, says Managing Director Reimond Olthof from Aqana. “Through the intensive collaboration with our Israeli partner, Aqana can deliver the DANA technology to licensed partners of Aqwise and these are worldwide”.

Aqana is located on the Watercampus Leeuwarden where a cluster of universities, companies and government develop on the theme of water technology. All the parties work together within the Water Alliance collaboration.

Source: WaterAlliance, November 29, 2011

An exciting final round for the Food Innovation Awards for TailTec!

de Groot — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:57:08 +0000

As one of the seven finalists for the Food Innovation Awards at the New Venture competition, TailTec gave a pitch on the 23rd of June in Amsterdam for a jury of experts. Despite the fact that TailTec didn’t take home one of the three prizes, the competition was highly educational (and fun!). In addition, TailTec received a very positive feedback on their business plan. We congratulate the winners: Meenu’s Idlis, Ruud Maaz and Valleivis!

TailTec nominated for Food Innovation Award of New Venture!

de Groot — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:18:03 +0000

New Venture organizes an annual business plan competition for innovative start-ups. This year 143 entries participated in the pre-selection. TailTec is chosen out of all these start-ups to participate in the finale round, together with seven other start-ups. A decisive pitch is being held for a jury on the 23th of June in Amsterdam. The winner of the Food Innovation Award wins the main prize of €20,000!

New Venture is a business plan competition for innovative start-ups and is started in 1998 by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Since 2000, New Venture is affiliated as an independent foundation with De Baak, Management Centre VNO-NCW.

14th of June: Meeting ‘Mannen van de WIT’; Water & Energy

de Groot — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:26:24 +0000

The ‘Mannen van de WIT’ are organizing a meeting about Water and Energy under the Innovation Programme Water Technology on Tuesday the 14^th of June 2011.

During this meeting, which is being held at the sewage treatment plant at Apeldoorn, experts who work at water properties, in the energy sector, at technology companies and within the waste treatment, will give their views on the theme Water and Energy. Douwe Jan Tilkema of Water Properties Veluwe gives a presentation about the Energy Factory. Marco Kwak from Attero speaks about a vision on water, energy and waste streams. Other speakers are Luchien Luning of Ecofys and Sybrand Metz of Technological Top Institute Water Technology Wetsus. The program starts with a reception and informal lunch at 12.30h. The presentations start at 13.00h. After a short break, a panel discussion will be held and the program ends with a visit to the innovative industrial fermentation installation and the water purification installation of the sewage treatment plant at Apeldoorn and drinks afterwards.

Westt became a member of the Water Alliance

de Groot — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:28:16 +0000

The Foundation Water Alliance brings together public and private concerns, government agencies and institutions in the Northern Netherlands. A proactive network and a unique knowledge in the field of sustainable and innovative watertechnology.

Within the sector of water technology there are plenty of growth opportunities for the North of the Netherlands. There is already a large number of people working within the field of water in the Water Alliance region. We strive for a fivefold increase of that number within 10 years of time .

The Water Alliance achieves sustainable economic development in water-related applications with social return. She is making a contribution by strengthening the competitiveness of the northern business community. The focuslies within innovative, sustainable water treatment processes that are applicable worldwide.

What are the benefits that made us decide to join the Water Alliance?

Many participants benefit of the cooperation within the Water Alliance. It gives existing companies in the sector the possibility to grow, it gives start-up companies a greater chance of success and by the combined strength of the water technology cluster, the North of the Netherlands becomes a more attractive location for companies that operate elsewhere in the sector. The preconditions has been met – especially if the Water Campus Leeuwarden is being shaped in the upcoming years. The public-private partnerships can be called special and the infrastructure is continuously being optimized.

For more information, please take a look at: www.wateralliance.nl

Pure Green takes over FBI patent of Wetsus

de Groot — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:49:10 +0000

Pure Green acquired a Wetsus patent for a new technology to disinfect water in a so-called Fluid Bed Induction (FBI) reactor early in 2011. Pure Green is a member of the Wetsus theme group for Advanced Waste Water Treatment and the patent acquisition was partially supported by the Bison financing scheme. In the years to come, Pure Green will use the patent for product development and marketing of the FBI reactor. The FBI reactor will possibly be combined with Pure Green’s innovative ozone technologie. Since mid-2009 Pure Green developes a technology to produce ozone at low investment and energy costs.

Westt participates in Wetsus Rabobank Water Business Challenge

de Groot — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:48:55 +0000

From the 23th untill the 27th of May, Wetsus organizes the Wetsus Rabobank Water Business Challenge. This week, starting entrepreneurs within the water sector will develop their business plan and follow workshops concerning the various aspects of starting a company. Gerard Schouten, director of Westt BV, will be the Co-chairman of the second day (Market day). At the end of this week, all participants will present their plan and a winner will be chosen.

Please click here to take a look at the complete programme of this week.