Licence agreement for water treatment technology

University of South Australia (UniSA) commercialisation company Itek Ventures has entered into an exclusive licence agreement with Hyflux International, a wholly owned subsidiary of water solutions company Hyflux, to apply and eventually commercialise its coating technology in the global water treatment market.

The coating technology transforms a standard stainless steel or plastic mesh into a highly effective separator of fluids. For a liquid containing both oil and water components, a mixture which is typically found in many contaminated water treatment situations, the water passes easily through the mesh while preventing the progress of the oil component.

“This technology can be used to separate oil and water at very low pressures,” said Professor Dayang Wang, one of the inventors of the technology.

“The mesh filters are produced through an easily accessible coating process, which allows large-scale production.”

Hyflux intends to further develop this coating technology, integrate it with its water treatment membrane manufacturing processes and market the end products globally.

Itek CEO Dr Stephen Rodda said the effectiveness of the technology has attracted the attention of several global water businesses. The company is also seeking industry partners to apply the underlying technology to oil spill remediation, so it could ultimately be used in situations such as the 2010 BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.