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- Clean TeQ Water (CNQ) is taking share of the global $600 billion water treatment market
- Sector growth is forecast at more than seven per cent per annum through to 2025
- Clean TeQ was born following a demerger from Sunrise Energy Metals (SRL) last year, and it addresses some of the most pressing water supply issues amidst climate change, growing urban populations and water pollution
- The Melbourne-based company has a range of technological water treatment solutions and serves global customers across agriculture, aquaculture, government, mining, energy, manufacturing and other major industries.
- CNQ shares were trading at 52 cents (at close on October 5)
Access to clean water is critical for human survival, and yet the World Health Organisation claims two billion people are this year living in water-stressed countries.
It also expects that this number will rise with climate change and population growth.
The World Health Organisation also reports nearly half-a-million deaths a year are directly attributed to contaminated drinking water.
Water — treated to a range of qualities — is also crucial for many business operations, including in mining, energy, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
Market researcher Grand View forecasts that the world’s water treatment systems market will experience compound annual growth of more than seven per cent through to 2025.
It’s already a $600 billion industry globally, and it’s gaining momentum in Australia.
A company with a technology portfolio and global market access is ASX-listed company Clean TeQ Water (CNQ).
The company
Clean TeQ was born following a demerger from Sunrise Energy Metals (SRL) last year and it addresses some of the most pressing water supply issues amid climate change, growing urban populations and water pollution.
The Melbourne-based company services clients across government, mining, energy, agriculture, aquaculture and manufacturing industries.
Clean TeQ has a global footprint of laboratories, production facilities and water treatment projects around the world, including in Australia, China, the Middle East, Africa and central Europe.
Their water treatment solutions are scalable and adaptable to most requirements, from drinking water for municipalities, to agricultural applications, to the treatment of wastewater produced from large-scale industrial manufacturing and mining operations.
Clean TeQ offers water management, treatment, and recycling solutions to these operations, many of which need to adhere to increasing water restrictions and regulations.
The company has three business units: Clean TeQ Water Solutions, Clean TeQ Metal Recovery and NematiQ Graphene Membranes. The divisions cover eight unique patent-protected solutions.
Clean TeQ Water
Clean TeQ Water Solutions serves industrial, municipal and mining clients requiring high water recovery while producing minimal waste and drawing less energy.
The company’s technologies are mainly focused on ion exchange or encapsulated bacteria technology.
The Continuous Ionic Filtration (CIF) technology is different to conventional methods in that the ion exchange resin moves around the system in counterflow to the water being treated, simultaneously removing both dissolved and undissolved contaminants.
This approach uses fewer chemicals, produces less waste and is viable across a wider set of industries where traditional ion exchange systems could not be used.
Clean TeQ also provides systems built around its proprietary BIOCLENS lens encapsulated bacteria technology, which uses Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA) encapsulation to remove ammonia and nitrate from water. Ammonia and nitrate negatively impact human health and can cause algal blooms which destroy ecosystems.
Bacteria have been used for water treatment for more than a century, but traditional methods often can’t meet modern more stringent effluent requirements, nor are they suitable for harsh conditions found in many industrial wastewaters.
Clean TeQ Water’s encapsulation technology greatly improves the effectiveness of the bacteria, producing cleaner water and less secondary waste and allowing it to operate under more difficult environmental conditions.
It’s a solution for mining, aquaculture, agriculture, industrial and local government applications.
Clean TeQ’s Metal Recovery
Clean TeQ’s Metal Recovery subsidiary has developed a suite of proprietary solutions that can extract metal for mining and industrial clients. It can economically recover valuable metals from mine tailings and wastewater and helps companies reduce their environmental footprint.
The company’s main technology platform is CLEAN-IX technology.
CLEAN-IX encompasses several technology variations specifically developed for metal extraction from leached solutions or pulps with continuous and counter-current ion exchange, ensuring maximum extraction into high-purity, highly-concentrated product streams, thus minimising acid consumption and post-processing costs.
NematiQ
Clean TeQ Water’s pre-commercial graphene membrane business is NematiQ. Graphene membranes typically use about half the energy of conventional nanofiltration membranes, produce less secondary waste and are cheaper to operate.
This technology is a giant leap forward for the company as it seeks to produce pure and affordable water and treat wastewater.
Clean TeQ Water plans to disrupt the global $5 billion water filtration market with its NematiQ offering.
After almost a decade of development, the company recently announced the start of its first customer pilot in Victoria with a leading vegetable processing company. Upon successfully completing this and similar customer pilots, the Graphene Membrane will be introduced to the market.
The technology is suitable for the treatment of surface water, groundwater and seawater, and can be used in drinking water, treated effluent and industrial water, and for industrial separations.
Clean TeQ uses BIONEX for nitrate removal in China
One of Clean TeQ’s important water treatment projects is its major BIONEX nitrate removal plant in China.
BIONEX is an innovative integration of the CIF and BIOCLENS technology to remove nitrate from groundwater at a coal mine.
The technology is removing nitrate to almost undetectable levels while reducing operating costs.
Clean TeQ improving Mackay and Townsville’s water supplies
Clean TeQ has developed its $2 million Koumala drinking water project in Queensland to the commissioning phase.
Clean TeQ is building a plant to reduce the hardness of Mackay’s drinking water supply.
Queensland’s state government has also enlisted Clean TeQ to build a 15-megalitre-per-day recycled water treatment facility at Townsville’s Cleveland Bay purification plant.
It’s about reducing the demand for potable water and supporting the development of green hydrogen operations.
Clean TeQ serving remote communities
The company also has a contract with the Power and Water Corporation in the Northern Territory to supply an ion exchange treatment plant for a remote community.
The plant will remove uranium from groundwater so it’s safe for drinking.
These are just a few of Clean TeQ’s projects: the company is also busy constructing industrial water treatment projects in New South Wales and the Middle East.
Who’s behind the company?
Clean TeQ’s Chief Executive Officer is Willem Vriesendorp, who has lived and worked in China since 2010. He was Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy at a carbon trading and clean energy-focused venture capital firm before he founded a wastewater treatment business in Beijing in 2012.
Clean TeQ’s research and development, product development and tech commercialisation are led by Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Peter Voigt, who founded Sunrise Energy Metals in 1990.
Mr Vriesendorp and Mr Voigt are supported by non-executive directors Ian Knight, Sam Riggall and Robyn McLeod, and CFO Magda Klapakis.
What does this all mean for investors?
Following its demerger from Sunrise Energy Metals, Clean TeQ Water has embarked on rapid growth and reported a five-fold revenue increase in FY2022 to $10.8 million.
Clean TeQ has an experienced and passionate management team driving innovation in the water treatment space to service a range of prominent industries.
The company has developed effective and efficient water treatment technologies for previously unmet applications.
Demand for these services is expected to increase with climate change, urban population growth, plus the development of hydrogen operations and the mining of lithium and other battery metals.
With its technologies, a healthy pipeline of global customers and a clear strategy, Clean TeQ stands out in the water treatment space.
The company’s technology is innovative and patent-protected, and there are wide-ranging and increasing demands for water treatment globally.
These factors leave Clean TeQ well positioned, with extraordinary potential to dominate the water treatment industry around the world.
