Technology category:   Water Quality

Solution

Aclarity commercializes novel electrochemical water treatment systems for the complete, on-site destruction of contaminants like PFAS in wastewater.

Why this matters

PFAS, a group of manufacturing chemicals that is known to be harmful to the environment and human health, commonly enters the environment from wastewater discharge and landfill leachate. Alacrity’s system treats the water that drains from landfills and destroys the PFAS before it can enter the environment and cause harm.

Technology category:   Water Quality

Solution

BlueConduit platform provides clarity, recommended order for lead service line replacements, and easy-to-understand dashboards for internal and public consumption, empowering utilities and individuals with information to reduce their exposure to lead.

Why this matters

Lead pipes were the building blocks of the modern day water distribution system. However, now lead exposure has been linked to detrimental health effects on humans including children’s development. BlueConduit’s software optimizes the lead service line replacement process through accurately predicting lead conveyance pipes locations that cities can use in decision making.

Technology category:   Sanitation

Solution

Instead of flushing waste, CHANGE: WATER Labs is solving the problem of off-line sanitation with a toilet that evaporates it. Instead of using and polluting water to get rid of waste, their iThrone solution turns waste back into pure water.

Why this matters

Millions of people across the developing world live beyond the pipe – without access to basic drinking water and sanitation services. This is because new centralized drinking water and sewage systems are unsustainable, infeasible and costly to build. change:WATER Labs provides a decentralized sanitation solution that hygienically contains waste to reduce disease and prevent sewage runoff into nearby water bodies.

Previous programs

Imagine H2O Accelerator 2018

Technology category:   Wastewater Treatment & Reuse

Solution

DigitalPaani is a lifecycle management system that leverages proprietary software, live data, and automation to optimize every aspect of plant operations, be it diagnosing problems early, managing the workflows of every individual involved in operations as per actual plant design, guiding real-time process troubleshooting, and recommending retrofits when needed.

Why this matters

While cities in India are focused on installing more water distribution and treatment plants, they lack operational efficiency tools, leading to the inability to handle complex operations and prevent the discharge of untreated effluent into surrounding water. DigitalPaani’s IoT system improves plant management through not only identifying problems, but also by recommending changes in operating parameters, training and guiding every task executed by the operations team.

Previous programs

Imagine H2O Asia 3

Technology category:   Wastewater Treatment & Reuse

Solution

Gross-Wen Technologie’s (GWT) patented revolving algae biofilm (RAB) system cost effectively and sustainably uses algae-based treatment to remove nutrients, capture carbon dioxide and produce a sellable algae byproduct.

Why this matters

Anaerobic digesters break down solid waste during the wastewater treatment process. When treating the solid waste digestate, these systems release biogas which is high in GHG’s like carbon dioxide and methane. However, GWT’s cost-effective system reduces the amount of carbon in biogas released, making their technology much more sustainable than alternative solutions.

Previous programs

Imagine H2O Accelerator 2021

Technology category:   Sanitation

Solution

SewerAI leverages its cloud inspection management platform (Pioneer™) and AI Computer Vision tools (AutoCode™) to help wastewater professionals to accelerate productivity, increase condition assessment accuracy, and reduce the overall cost to maintain and renew aging collection systems.

Why this matters

Limited insight into the conditions of sewer pipes combined with aging and overworked infrastructure increasingly leads to unexpected sewer collapses and overflow events that affect residential neighborhoods and marine life alike. SewerAI’s software enables municipalities to assess the condition of buried wastewater assets, predict likely failures, and optimally prioritize the rehabilitation or replacement of their assets.

Previous programs

Imagine H2O Accelerator 2020

Problem:
Cities don’t have the tools to measure flood risk and build resilience resulting in extensive damage to communities, economies and local environments.

Solution:
High resolution satellite imagery and machine learning technology. Cloud to Street is leveraging their technology to develop the first of its kind parametric insurance for coastal flood resilience and protection.

Pilot:
Cloud to Street is launching the first commercially scalable parametric flood insurance pilot to help the city of New Orleans better understand their flood risk and build urban coastal resilience

Problem:
Cities’ costs for treating and conveying water are increasing, in no small part due to rising electricity costs.

Solution:
Modular hydropower turbines installed directly within existing infrastructure that generates continuous, reliable hydroelectric power

Pilot:
Emrgy is installing its hydropower turbines in Phoenix, AZ to reduce operating costs, grid electricity consumption, and carbon footprint

Problem:
Cities are struggling to respond to rapid urbanization and the demand it puts on local water and aging wastewater treatment facilities.

Solution:
Onsite decentralized wastewater treatment that converts wastewater into high quality soil amendments and purified water that can be reused onsite for non-potable applications

Pilot:
Epic CleanTech is installing it’s system in a high-rise building in the bay area to decrease building water demand by 90% and ease the load on municipal utilities.

Problem:
Cities need to build resilience to flooding and persistent water shortages. Due to climate change, aging infrastructure and strict regulation, public and private developers are being forced to implement climate adaptation measures in urban development and retrofitting projects.

Solution:
Bluebloqs is a compact, circular system for rainwater treatment, storage and reuse in urban areas that captures 95% rainwater.

Pilot:
Field Factors will deploy its Bluebloq system and monitoring platform to promote climate resilience and green infrastructure in the Hague, Netherlands.

Problem:
Cities in developing countries have minimal information about the health of wastewater infrastructure.

Solution:
AI-based wastewater surveillance robots for monitoring the health of wastewater infrastructure, helping cities intercept, divert and treat raw sewage, significantly reducing water pollution.

Deployment:
Fluid Robotics will use it’s robots to help the city of Pune, India divert and treat raw sewage from the Mula-mutha river.

Problem:
Cities in emerging markets lack the technical capacity and resources to effectively provide city-wide, inclusive wastewater treatment and scale their services

Solution:
Non-sewered sanitation through a “waste-to-energy” model which is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than sewerage.

Pilot:
Sanivation will carry out a feasibility study to deploy a circular economy treatment plant for the residents of Malindi, Kenya.

Problem:
Cities do not have real-time insight into water and wastewater quality which leaves them vulnerable to toxic shocks or heavy loads from industrial sources.

Solution:
Sensor platform that delivers continuous data to enable analysis and optimization of water and wastewater quality in real-time.

Pilot:
SENTRY will help São Paulo, Brazil’s wastewater treatment plants optimize processes and ensure only treated water flows back into the ecosystem

Problem:
Small and Medium-sized water utilities lack visibility on the state of water quality beyond the plant and experience water quality issues.

Solution:
Affordable sensors and an intuitive dashboard that report unsafe changes in chlorine levels and turbidity, acting as an early warning for operators.

Pilot:
Varuna will deploy it’s solution to increase visibility and efficiency for the water utility and provides assurance to communities about the safety of their water in Trenton, NJ and/or Monroe, LA

Solution:
Modular, decentralized wastewater treatment systems

Pilot:
Indra is partnering with two academic institutions in India to install individual wastewater systems

Solution:
Smart water meters and automated leakage prevention system for high rise apartments

Pilot:
SmarterHomes has partnered with Namibia Water Corporation Ltd. to deploy 3,000 battery powered smart water meters with integrated leakage prevention systems to reduce household consumption by 35%

Solution:
Cloud connected sensor network for stormwater management – the google traffic maps for sewers

Pilot:
StormSensor is partnering with the Jersey City Municipal Utility to Authority and the Jersey City Office of Innovation to deploy a network of 36 individual IoT connected sensors to monitor stormwater and combined sewer flow

Solution:
Water management platform integrating low cost measuring devices with Narrow-Band IoT

Pilot:
Upepo is partnering with Safaricom and local utilities to install 5,000 meters.

Solution:
Trenchless technology for the installation of pipeline infrastructure

Pilot:
Zilper has partnered with Aqua Ingenieros SAS (Cota, Columbia) to deploy its first commercial prototype trenchless equipment and guidance system for 400 meters of pipeline

Solution:
Turnkey water ATMs for arsenic and fluoride-affected communities with patented filtration technology, IOT enabled operations and pay-as-you-go cards

Pilot:
Drinkwell deployed four systems in Chittagong. In parallel, we introduced Drinkwell to the World Bank who recently announced a $100m loan facility for Bangladesh municipalities. After its successful pilot, Drink is working with the Chittagong utility and the World Bank to finance and implement a network of 200 ATM systems, reaching more than 300k people in urban areas

Solution:
Artificial intelligence water platform that equips India’s second-tier cities with digital tools to reduce service failures and boost infrastructure upgrades

Pilot:
Smartterra partnered with the Warangal Municipal Administration, Telangana state to manage the full cycle of water distribution and drainage.

Solution:
On-demand, in-home testing device for high-accuracy lead testing in real-time to empower utilities to take action

Pilot:
Spout partnered with Denver Water to empower 500 consumers with tap water quality knowledge and help Denver build the necessary response systems to take action