BC Entrepreneur With Global Solutions

Written by ISIC // December 21, 2011 // News // No comments

BCIC’s Commercialization and Business Planning Workshop…Works!

Posted Friday, 16 December 2011 15:32 by Alice Lam

For Vancouver-based entrepreneur Colleen Legzdins, seeking a sustainable solution to improving effluent water quality is what motivated her to start her company Axine Water Technologies Inc.

With a background in engineering and a special interest in electrochemical wastewater treatment, Colleen set out to create a technology that removes pollutants and emerging contaminants in wastewater treatment plants with disinfection in one single step. “The electrochemical process oxidizes non-biodegradable organics such as pharmaceuticals, toxic chemicals and key inorganics such as ammonia,” explains Colleen. “The process also does not produce sludge, which is a very expensive problem.

To date there hasn’t been widespread commercialization of electrochemical technology in wastewater segments due to the high costs associated to the reactors, higher energy consumption and the use of chemicals. With that in mind, Colleen redesigned the reactor to be energy efficient by using fuel cell technology, developed low cost electrodes and eliminated the need for chemicals. Axine’s electrodes are up to 10 times less expensive and the prototype has shown to reduce energy by more than 80%.

Another benefit to the process is the recovery of a high purity hydrogen gas stream, a valuable industrial gas that can be used for energy storage or clean energy generation to offset power demand.

With an innovative technology that has the potential to be a sustainable solution to one of the world’s leading problems, Colleen is now developing her business plan to grow her company. Colleen recently completed the 2011 BCIC Commercialization and Business Planning Workshop, which she became aware of from Dean Prelazzi, VP of Business Development at BCIC.

“Having had no business planning experience, everything in the course has been valuable – especially the information related to how to build the financial plan,” said Colleen. ”Because I’ve been bootstrapping my own business, making decisions on what I should spend money on and what can wait has been tough.” Colleen has also benefited from learning more about the value of reaching out for advice, building a quality team, market segmentation and getting customers involved as early as possible.