Purifying air from industry through smart technology
Techport organized a Techport Challenge for innovative SMEs and startups in the spring. The challenge? Reduce emissions in the IJmond region and the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area with smart technology. Winner of the challenge was André Kapitein with Blue Reactor Systems: "We purify air without using water, chemicals and filters. We already do this at hotels, beer breweries and have already proven the effect in the industry and livestock sector. Now we want to start applying it in these sectors as well."
As a winner of Techport Challenge, André now participates in GO!-NH Growth program. He can also participate in the Techport Innovation Workshops and has access to a large network. André: "Winning the Techport Challenge has given me a boost. I ended up in a warm 'networking' bath. For entrepreneurs, networking is important to get in touch with the right parties. This takes extra time and energy during this corona. The team at Techport knows so many people, they just know immediately which person you need to talk to, this works very efficiently. In the Growth program you train your company on soft skills such as design thinking, UX and communication to the outside world. If you want to have all this expertise in-house, you need a huge team. Now we get these skills and have access to the right people to help us optimize these important business processes. And it's also nice that the knowledge we have gained again in, for example, collaborating with universities and applying for patents can be transferred to others. The networking and learning from each other that has been affected by corona gets a boost through this program."
From hotel industry to industry
Several years ago André started his business: "When Q fever emerged, I was asked if I wanted to think about a method that could ensure that you could ventilate properly without emitting pollution. This is because the current techniques didn't work or were far too expensive for a farmer. I then started testing and came up with Non-Thermal Plasma (NTP). I made an initial reactor in-house and tested and demonstrated it in various environments. My first customers were hotels; cleaning hotel rooms without water and chemicals. Then followed beer brewers, Water Board HHNK, Tata Steel and also several farms. And now we want to apply this technology on a broader scale in industry. We think we can be of real value to industry, by reducing the Co2 footprint, reducing pollution and thus producing more sustainably. Extensive research has already been done and the technology has been validated. And it has been shown by external independent parties that this technology has up to a 90% lower Co2 footprint than traditional cleaning methods. This allows the industry to meet its climate goals."
Further development
The importance of this technology is also recognized by NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research), which is funding the entire research and development process towards the second generation. Here André is working closely with the Technical University of Eindhoven: "For us it is not just about production and selling products. For the long term, we have sought cooperation with universities and colleges. With this we are bridging the first Valley of Death by transforming research/demonstrators from the lab into products and services that can make the world beautiful, better, cleaner and safer. We are now overcoming the second Valley of Death. That is actually applying them in new industries and markets. The first generation is already being applied, and the fully funded five-year research and development program allows us to continue to innovate and come up with ever better innovative products to stay ahead of the competition as well.
André is very enthusiastic about the collaboration with Techport: "What we achieved in three months with Techport normally takes two years. We got back an important piece of energy that we lost because of Corona and we can now use that extra well to get through to industry. I am very grateful to the Province of North Holland for helping and stimulating us entrepreneurs in this way. Taking part in the Techport Challenge, and also winning it, is the best decision I've made in recent years!"
Want to know more?
André will tell you everything you want to know about Blue Reactor Systems and how he went from idea to product on June 3 during the Techport Knowledge Hour. He also likes to take you through his plans for the future. You can sign up here.