Lithium miners and manufacturers making a beeline for this clean-water technology

The company’s forward osmosis technology allows manufacturers to clean their wastewater and reclaim up to 95% of the waste as clean water without burning up too much energy

"Our low-cost wastewater treatment technology is tapping colossal markets which makes us a very attractive investment," said Forward Water Technologies CEO Howie Honeyman

Want to hit a bullseye?

You have to choose the right arrow. Forward Water Technologies Corp (TSX-V:FWTC) has clearly picked the right broadhead in the shape of its forward osmosis technology that allows manufacturers to clean their wastewater and reclaim up to 95% of the waste as clean water without burning up too much energy.

With companies under the gun to reduce their water footprint, Forward Water has responded with an elegant chemistry solution to recycle wastewater into clean water for reuse.

As a result, the company is on a growth track as it takes advantage of a blockbuster opportunity.

“I've always been inspired by fundamental science, especially chemistry and materials that perform functions — get a job done. You can see it in action at Forward Water, which has very elegant chemistry, that was developed at Queen's University by Dr Philip Jessop,” Forward Water Technologies CEO Howie Honeyman told Proactive.

As a scientist with a PhD in chemistry, Honeyman has built amazing products and spearheaded the development of a membrane purification product that will result in low-cost vaccines. He was quick to spot the potential of Dr Jessop’s work. Forward Water is a spin-off company based on Dr Jessop’s switchable solvents.

How it all works

The patented technology follows a simple three-step process:

• Water is pulled through a membrane by osmosis due to a concentrated draw salt solution on the opposite side.
• Once that is complete the draw salt is removed from the extracted water by converting it into a gas that bubbles out of the clean water which is then discharged.
• Then the gas is captured and turned back into salt to be reused. The compounds are captured, re-concentrated, and returned to the forward osmosis unit for reagent recycling in a closed-loop process.  

The technology was birthed by GreenCentre Canada and is rooted in a platform technology discovered at Queen’s University.

“We re-started the company in 2015 out of GreenCentre Canada and it was literally bench scale. Over the years, we've eliminated the science, technology, and engineering risks,” said Honeyman.

Ramping up commercialization

Forward Water is building an onsite pilot mobile commercial demo plant.

“What we’ve built — and almost finished — is a commercial demo plant, a plant that we can build on-site on a customer's location to treat their water,” said Honeyman.

“We're looking at eliminating the application risk, showing customers how it will work, save them money, preserve their water, and benefit their operations. We are laser-focused on business and commercialization.”

Forward Water’s technology is geared toward multiple industries, but Honeyman has singled out two industries that could benefit significantly from its technology — lithium mining (for batteries) and industrial manufacturing wastes (for example, for food and beverage processing).

“There are so many applications we can chase, but we’re a small company so we have to be focused. We’ve focused on good entry points into various sectors,” said Honeyman.

“Few people know that there’s an inadequate supply of lithium to be found from mining in hard rock and most new lithium will come from underground aquifers. You have to actually extract the lithium from those aquifers which contain brines, or naturally occurring salty solutions,” he added, pointing out that Forward Water can aid in capturing both lithium and clean water.

Lithium opportunity

Cornish Lithium has inked a deal to fund trials of Forward Water’s technology on Cornish geothermal waters. Cornish Lithium is focused on the extraction of lithium in the most green ways in the historic mining district of Cornwall, in the UK.

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Taxonomy

• Industrial Water Treatment
• Industrial Water Treatment
• Forward Osmosis
• Mining
• lithium