Home » Louisville’s WaterStep selected for inaugural Pipeline H2O program

Louisville’s WaterStep selected for inaugural Pipeline H2O program

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Feb. 2, 2017) – Local non-profit WaterStep has been selected as one of eight companies ​chosen to participate in the first ever Pipeline H2O, a new water technology commercialization program managed by The Hamilton Mill.

Supported by a coalition of regional cities, utilities, universities, and startup organizations throughout the Greater Cincinnati region, Pipeline H2O’s goal is to identify and accelerate companies working on water technologies that address the world’s water challenges, including infrastructure improvements, water reuse, wastewater treatment, monitoring and consumer innovations.

Representatives from WaterStep will travel to Cincinnati one week per month for four months, February through May 2017, where they will be introduced to various value-add resources throughout the region.

WaterStep’s Founder Mark Hogg anticipates the program will grow the organization’s networks to identify companies to assist with marketing, manufacturing and design of the Mobile Water System (MWS), thus increasing the MWS’s availability and effectiveness. The MWS is a rapid-deployment option to provide system redundancy for disaster relief organizations, water utilities, or others responsible for providing safe water through a mini-water treatment plant. The system includes everything needed for quick assembly and operation, and can provide safe water within two hours after being deployed. WaterStep has been testing and developing the MWS with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for over 2 years.

“This is an incredible opportunity to connect with other regional giants in the area of water technology, and take our products to a new level of international use,” said Hogg.

WaterStep has been an active member of Confluence, a major player in the development of the Pipeline H20 program, for 3 years. Confluence is an organization working to establish the Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana region as a global leader in sustainable, environmental technology innovation, with an initial emphasis on water. “We are thrilled to see WaterStep receive another win and acknowledgement of its innovative technology and forward-thinking leadership,” says Melinda Kruyer, Executive Director of Confluence. “WaterStep always sets a standard that humbles with its focus of applying the latest water technology to saving lives.”

Antony Seppi, Pipeline H2O’s Director of Flow said, “We can’t wait to begin working with these startups and introducing them to the value-add resources throughout the Greater Cincinnati region. Our region has some of the best water assets that can be leveraged to help these companies succeed.”

The call for applications was open from September through November of 2016. There were 66 applications received from across 5 continents representing 14 different countries. The review process included multiple rounds of evaluations to select the initial class of 8 companies. The evaluations were conducted by a diverse committee comprised of a cross-section of water experts (Greater Cincinnati Water Works, The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, City of Hamilton Water, Confluence, Butler County Groundwater Consortium, U.S. EPA) and entrepreneurial leaders (Hamilton Mill, Cintrifuse, Village Capital, Queen City Angels).

The first class of Pipeline H2O also includes the following companies:

• ANDalyze (Champaign, IL) offers products for testing water contamination using catalytic DNA technologies.
• AguaClara (Ithaca, NY) is a social enterprise that designs nonelectric municipal-scale surface water treatment technologies that are sustainable in underserved communities.
• kW River Hydroelectric (Hamilton, OH) is an enterprise focused on the development and commercialization of the Williams Cross-Flow Turbine.
• PowerTech Water (Lexington, KY) has developed a revolutionary water treatment technology based on their INCION™ technology platform that more effectively removes salts, minerals, and toxic metals with application in water softening, desalination, wastewater treatment and beyond.
• Searen (Cincinnati, OH) is an “Aquatech” company focused on providing superior water treatment solutions that utilizes sustainable technologies, including the exclusive and patented Vacuum Airlift (VAL).
• Slipstream ZLD (Albuquerque, NM) develops, manufactures and deploys the first ever low-cost, extremely efficient wastewater crystallization system for low volume industrial producers.
• WEL Enterprise (Covington, KY) has developed the first ever system to handle all treatment and reclamation of wastewater on one platform.