OxyMem, a UCD spin-out company, was last night declared overall winner of the 2014 Irish Times InterTradeIreland Innovation Awards.
Winner in the Energy and the Environment category and Innovation of the Year, OxyMem developed a technology for wastewater aeration. The company was founded in 2013 by Prof Eoin Casey and Dr Eoin Syron as spin-out from UCD’s School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering.
Until now wastewater aeration has been a very energy intensive process which has relied on ‘forced’ or ‘bubble aeration’ to deliver oxygen to the bacteria that breakdown the wastewater. Pumping and treating wastewater typically accounts for up to 2.5% of all electrical power produced in a developed country and the aeration process comprises, on average, of 60% of this energy.
OxyMem’s technology does not rely on a bubble to deliver oxygen to the bacteria. Instead, it uses a gas permeable membrane to deliver oxygen directly to the micro-organisms resulting in up to 99% oxygen transfer efficiency as no oxygen is lost to atmosphere. The company’s ‘bubbleless’ aeration system is typically four times more energy efficient than best-in-class solutions available today.
OxyMem employs 12 people, which it intends to grow to 35 after closing a €2 million funding round.
Wayne Byrne, CEO, Oxymem, said: “Looking to the future, we have major plans to revolutionise the wastewater treatment market globally. We have a turnover of €50 million within five years in our sights and receiving the overall Innovation of the Year award strengthens our position as pioneers in the wastewater industry and in the attainment of an energy and carbon neutral wastewater treatment plant.”
In addition to the Award, OxyMem won a communications package worth in excess of €150,000 from the Irish Times, a scholarship for an Executive Education Programme in the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, and a state-of-the-art laptop with a one-year subscription to the Irish Times’ e-paper.
TechCentral Reporters
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers