UK based Origin Aqua, a water technology and filtration company, has won a prestigious challenge award at the World Water Tech Innovation Summit for its single-step water treatment process, which has the potential to significantly reduce and perhaps one day replace the chlorine in tap water.
Developed in partnership with researchers from Cardiff University, Origin Aqua’s FreeOxTM and killing chlorine resistant viruses and bacteria.
The technology overcomes a host of underlying drawbacks associated with chlorine including resistant bugs, bad odour and taste, an embodied energy comparable to steel and the production of over 600 byproducts, which can be harmful to human health, skin biome and the environment.
Concentrated chlorine itself can be dangerous requiring careful transportation, handling, and storage, causing a costly and hazardous issue for water companies. In contrast, the FreeOxTM oxidation process is more cost effective, sustainable, and healthy. It uses 3x less energy than today’s technologies, while significantly reducing chlorine usage and neutralising chemicals such as synthetic hormones.
The new method, originally presented in Nature Catalysis in 2022, has now shown to be 10,000,000 times more effective at killing bacteria than an equivalent amount of industrial hydrogen peroxide, and over 100,000,000 times more effective than chlorination under equivalent conditions. It is also more effective at killing the bacteria and viruses in a shorter space of time compared to other compounds or technologies such as UV or Zone.
One of ten winners of the Water Discovery Challenge, run by Challenge Works and the Water Services Regulation Authority Ofwat with Arup and Isle Utilities, the project team will receive £450k to develop the technology to the pilot stage in particular for potable water treatment.
Andrew Cox, Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Origin Aqua, said: “Unlike chlorine production, which is energy intensive, FreeOxTM can be generated at point-of-use, eliminating chemical dosing, and reducing energy demand, while only creating water and oxygen byproducts – meaning there’s no chemical taste or smell; it represents the future of water treatment.
“We’re excited to be developing, upscaling and commercialising to test this game-changing technology, which holds the potential to transform water treatment in developed and developing countries alike.”
Over the last 24 months, the Origin Aqua team has completed a £380k Innovate UK project on bathing waters, increasing flowrates 300-fold.
Professor Graham Hutchings, Regius Professor of Chemistry at Cardiff University’s School of Chemistry, said: “Chlorination is an energy intensive and outmoded water treatment process, which is ineffective against a wide and increasing number of human-made contaminants. It’s also inefficient, with up to 80% of chlorine wasted during disinfection, due to chemicals such as ammonia and manganese, which are commonly found in our ground and surface (extraction) waters.
“Typical treatment works therefore have to combine chlorine with additional measures like UV, Ozone or membrane filtration adding to the cost, complexity, and carbon intensity of our water treatment. FreeOxTM replaces these stages of treatment with a single-step process using a catalyst made from gold and palladium in combination with hydrogen gas to effectively oxidise common contaminants without the use of chlorine. During this process hydrogen peroxide (a commonly used disinfectant usually produced on an industrial scale) is formed from the water itself. Effectively using water to disinfect water.”
As part of the £450k Ofwat Breakthrough Challenge finalist award, the team has secured a pilot project to develop the technology for drinking water with a £100k loan from Trial Reservoir and supported by Welsh Water. The team is now seeking industrial and technical investment partners to help upscale the technology to pilot trial stage.
The team for the Water Discovery Challenge combined expertise from CEO Andrew Cox, Dr Jack Lee, and Dr Josh Stevens at Origin Aqua, together with Professor Hutchings, Dr Jennifer Edwards and Dr Richard Lewis from Cardiff University’s School of Chemistry and Professor Jean-Yves Maillard of Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
