Strategic Alliance for Industrial Water Treatment

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Strategic Alliance for Industrial Water Treatment

Axine  completed an $8-million round of Series B financing. Axine has already raised $7.7 million in seed and Series A financing. 

Vancouver-based Axine Water Technologies has formed a strategic alliance with Japanese materials engineering leader Asahi Kasei as it prepares for commercial deployment of its disruptive industrial water treatment systems. 

Jonathan Rhone, CEO of Axine Water Technologies, whose on-site treatment systems use electrochemical reactions to break the bonds in toxic organic compounds, reducing them to harmless elements such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.“We hope to leverage their deep expertise in materials science,” said Axine CEO Jonathan Rhone. “We believe they can help us in product development and they have a lot of experience in manufacturing. As we scale up we will need to build out our supply chain and our manufacturing capability.”

Axine is running water treatment pilot operations with pharmaceutical, chemical and microelectronics firms, all industries with complex wastewater treatment needs.

Axine’s on-site treatment systems use electrochemical reactions to break the bonds in toxic organic compounds, reducing them to harmless elements such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.

The company expects to have commercial contracts for wastewater treatment in place by the end of this year, after a fresh series of four-to-six-week pilots financed in part by its relationship with its new investor.

Axine completed an $8-million round of Series B financing led by Asahi Kasei’s corporate venture capital arm, with contributions from existing investors Vancouver-based Chrysallix, BDC Venture Capital and Roda Group.

Axine has already raised $7.7 million in seed and Series A financing.

“Asahi Kasei invests in technology companies that have a strategic fit with their business,” said Rhone. “We are bringing this innovative water treatment technology to the market and fundamentally we use advanced materials as part of our core technology and Asahi Kasei is a world leader in materials science and materials engineering.”

In addition, Axine will receive a $2-million federal grant from the clean-tech innovation fund Sustainable Technology Development Canada.

Industrial waste water may be contaminated with ammonia, formaldehyde and other compounds that require removal by truck for off-site treatment or that necessitate storage deep underground. 

Rhone, a former oil industry executive and founder of the waste-to-energy systems manufacturer Nexterra, estimates that industry spends at least $6 billion a year treating or disposing of water polluted with toxic organic compounds in North America alone.

Rather than manufacturing and selling treatment systems, Axine plans to offer on-site water treatment to its customers.

“We will finance, own and operate our technology on our customer’s site and they pay a monthly service fee,” said Rhone. 

Source: Vancouver Sun

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