Based on its recent analysis of the water treatment market, Frost & Sullivan has recognized BioLargo Water Inc. with the 2015 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation. BioLargo’s Advanced Oxidation System (AOS) filter is a low-cost, high-impact and sustainable clean water technology that has captured the interest of academia, governments and the industry. With applications ranging from food and agriculture to ballast water treatment, the AOS filter demonstrates industry-leading decontamination and disinfection capabilities and is poised for a scale-up and successful commercialization in the tertiary and advanced wastewater treatment (WWT) market.
The patented AOS filter combines iodine, water filter materials and electrolysis within a water filter device to provide significant cost-benefits and efficacy improvements over existing WWT technologies. BioLargo, the parent company, holds 15 U.S. patents with more than three additional pending patent applications.
“The AOS Filter generates high levels of oxidation potential across surfaces within the device by converting a typical carbon matrix filter into an electrochemical reactor,” said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Seth Cutler. “This amplification of the oxidation potential of iodine, a key natural disinfectant, creates different and powerful forms of iodine, greatly enhancing its efficacy.”
Improving upon traditional activated carbon filters, the AOS Filter performs a disinfection task similar to UV or ozone at much lower price points. It demonstrates impressive levels of disinfection, removing infectious biological pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli in water. It is also extremely effective in removing soluble organics such as napthenic acids, dioxane, sulfur compounds, ammonia, benzene, fungi and spores.
Unlike absorption or membrane filtration technologies, the AOS filter does away with the need to dispose of concentrates or solids, boosting performance regardless of salinity. In a recent study, the AOS filter eliminated 10 million Salmonella cells within a two-minute time point. The industry standard, chlorine dioxide, only eliminated 100,000 cells within a 60-minute period. The success of the early Salmonella trials prompted the company to explore treatment opportunities for other toxins and chemicals impacting water treatment.
While offering the flexibility to conserve and regenerate the iodine within the device, it removes all iodine or, where appropriate, delivers as a residual treatment for diverse applications including the treatment of livestock drinking water or in cooling towers.
Focused on identifying and recruiting licensing partners for commercialization purposes, BioLargo is targeting strategic segments such as the food processing industry and ballast water treatment industry. By focusing on discrete applications that lack adequate technologies for problem resolution, BioLargo has been able to position the AOS filter as an important emerging technology and significant value proposition.
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed an innovative element in a product by leveraging leading-edge technologies. The award recognizes the value-added features/benefits of the product and the increased ROI it offers customers that, in turn, enhances customer acquisition and overall market penetration potential.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
Source: Frost & Sullivan
