By Business & Finance 
Pictured in San Francisco at the presentation of the 2015 Imagine H2O Infrastructure Challenge (Growth Stage) Award to OxyMem are; Brian Matthay, director of Strategic Initiatives, Imagine H2O; Wayne Byrne, managing director, OxyMem; Tamin Pechet, chairman, Imagine H2O and Scott Bryan, COO, Imagine H2O.
Imagine H2O, a leading accelerator for water technology based in San Francisco, has announced OxyMem, a UCD spin-out company, as winner of the 2015 Imagine H2O Infrastructure Challenge (Growth Stage) Award.
Imagine H2O is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2007 by a team of leaders in the water, energy, and non-profit sectors at Harvard Business School whose vision is to turn water problems into opportunities.
Each year Imagine H2O hosts an annual business plan competition addressing specific water opportunities. This year’s competition, entitled the Infrastructure Challenge, attracted entries from over 100 companies in 20 countries.
OxyMem was the only Irish company among 12 shortlisted finalists, six in each of two categories (early-stage and growth stage), with the other finalists coming from the US, Israel and Greece.
OxyMem, based in Athlone, won the Growth Stage Award for its breakthrough technology for the wastewater aeration market tackling the industry’s biggest challenge, energy costs.
Conventional wastewater treatment consumes 2-3% of a nation’s electricity production. This is due a 100 years of reliance on bubble diffusion for conventional treatment plants, which suffer high energy losses because of the oxygen transfer limitations in the process.
OxyMem, co-founded in 2013 by Professor Eoin Casey and Dr Eoin Syron as spin-out from UCD’s School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, does not have these limitations. It uses hollow fibre, gas permeable membranes, to support a fixed film ecosystem for the biology allowing for direct delivery of oxygen to the micro-organisms which break down the pollutants. OxyMem achieves superior energy performance, with lower sludge production, with less operator hours.
Scott Bryan, chief operating officer, Imagine H2O said: “This year’s programme saw the largest and strongest pool of applicants in Imagine H2O’s history. We proudly welcome OxyMem to our growing portfolio of top water entrepreneurs.”
On receiving the Award, Wayne Byrne, managing director, OxyMem said: “We have had this major platform opportunity in our sights for some time now. ImageH2O’s not for profit approach to tackling some of the most significant challenges facing the world today means they have a laser focused ability to identify the most likely to succeed in addressing these challenges.”
He added, “This accolade gives us incredible traction in the US, and global markets, with end users, partners and venture capital because of its strong track record. We are honoured to have been selected as the overall winner from such a strong cohort of finalists.”
