Two US Companies Win The 2016 China BlueTech Awards

Los Angeles based industrial wastewater specialist, OriginClear, and Milwaukee-based stormwater company, PaveDrain have won the first ever China BlueTech Awards. The outstanding innovation of the two US companies along with the China market readiness of their technologies, impressed the judges of this prestigious new event co-organised by Mandarin Environmental and BlueTech Research.

OriginClear and PaveDrain competed against a field of 30 water and wastewater technology companies from Europe, Israel, and North America, all focused on demonstrating their technology’s readiness for China market. Entrants included a wide spectrum of small and large capitalization companies with solutions across key industry submarkets, including industrial, municipal, biosolids, and stormwater.

Of the 30 entrants, six companies were shortlisted by judges and organizers and invited to have a presence in the BlueTech Innovation Pavilion at Aquatech China, China’s largest and most important water industry expo.

The judges were impressed by OriginClear’s advanced water cleanup technology, Electro-Water Separation (EWS), which is based on electrochemistry and will tackle China’s most recalcitrant type of pollutants. Scalable, with a low operational cost, it will be incorporated as a modular add-on to existing water treatment sites in China or built as a standalone process flow.

Jean-Louis Kindler, President of OriginClear remarked, “Winning this award is a strong endorsement and recognition of the attractiveness of our solution for the industrial wastewater treatment market in China. I want to thank everyone involved, especially the very impressive group of competitors whom all deserve equal recognition for their solutions for China’s water and wastewater challenges.”

PaveDrain’s solution for stormwater also captured the attention of the judges. The PaveDrain system was created under the premise of allowing stormwater runoff from streets, roads, roofs and parking lots to quickly infiltrate into the ground. This places less stress on the sewer systems, can help reduce localized flooding and helps water infiltrate back into the groundwater table. Following over three years of research and development in North America, PaveDrain is now strategically aligning with China’s Sponge City initiative to bring its infiltration system to China.

PaveDrain CEO Doug Buch commented on the recognition, “We had been looking for a way to demonstrate our solution to prospective Chinese partners, and the China BlueTech Awards represented exactly the right channel to accomplish this. We would like to thank the organizers, judges and sponsors for their time, and dedication to accelerating the path to market in China for international water technologies.”

While both OriginClear and PaveDrain have recently inked agreements with strategic partners in China, both companies are still relatively new to the China. The 2016 China BlueTech Awards competition has provided a compelling and high profile platform for demonstrating their entry into the Chinese market.

The other finalists in the 2016 China BlueTech Awards were:

• AppliTek: On-line analyzers, testing equipment, and monitoring solutions for water quality monitoring.
• BDP EnviroTech: Highly efficient biological wastewater treatment utilizing Biological Double-efficiency Process (BDP).
• Dais Analytic: Membrane distillation process for water purification.
• Hydro International: Stormwater and wastewater solutions leveraging innovative vortex technologies.

Building on the success of the awards, Mandarin Environment and BlueTech Research are already turning their attention to the 2017 competition, which will continue to offer international water and wastewater technology companies a platform for demonstrating readiness for the China market. Technology submissions for 2017 China BlueTech Awards will be accepted between November 1, 2016 and January 30, 2017. The Awards Reception will again take place at Aquatech China.