Commercialising Dormant IP
A Case Study
IRDG Event- Dec 12th 2012
Dr. Paul Mc Evoy
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Case Study
• Enva Ireland Ltd.
– Waste management and environmental solutions
– Developed a novel waste water treatment solution for a
challenging customer situation based around electrocoagulation
– Operated for over 2 years before factory was shut down
– Enva had filed patents but IP was Dormant and unused
– Approached TfI to help evaluate the dormant IP to see if it
could be commercialised to deliver a return on their
investment
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Process
• TfI implemented a 3 step process to evaluate Enva’s dormant IP to
determine whether it had value and if so, how to commercialise it.
Each stage concluded with a review meeting to decide whether to
proceed
1. State of the Art Review
– Review technology and patent landscapes to compare with other EC
systems
– Review commercial landscape and activity to determine who else is out
there and what they are doing with EC
2. Applications
– Review applications and filter down to prime targets for Enva
3. Route to market
– Review route to market options and begin commercial engagements
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State of the Art Review
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Purpose
• Review Enva’s technology and patent
• Identify who else has EC systems
– Review their patents and solutions, comparing
against Enva’s to identify what is unique about
Enva’s system
• Determine what (if any) Unique Selling
Proposition Enva may have
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Approach
• Patent Searching
– Identify companies and key patents
• Literature review
– Identify key papers on EC
• Market Review
– Identify companies, products and solutions
• Analyse findings
– Determine Enva’s Unique Selling Points
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Applications EC is being used for
• Oil & Gas
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Refineries
Hydraulic fracturing
Produced Water
Naphthenic Acids
Pulp & Paper
Shipyard / Bilge water
Metal finishing
Vehicle Washdown
Phosphorus Removal
Leachate Treatment
Mining
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• Crystal Production
• Sewage on Ships
• Surface/ground Water
Remediation
• Municipal WWT
• Textile Industry
• Cooling Towers
• Meat & Poultry
Processing
• Dairy
• Inland Fish Farming
Comparison vs Water Tectonics IP
• Key Points
– Serpentine flow
– Mono-polar system
– Very similar connection system
to Enva
– Patent filed – Aug 2010
• Enva Benefits
– More uniform consumption of
electrode
– Possible license required
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Comparison vs Aguacure IP
• Key Points
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Similar design to Enva
Monopolar
Patent filed – Jul 2006
Patent updated Jul 2007
with additional details
• Enva Benefits
– Protected electrode
contacts
– Simpler to set-up
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Morselt Redbox
• Skid based system
• Primarily targeted at
– metal treating industries,
– print industries
– paint industries
• Few details on large scale
implementations and many
negative comments seen
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Halliburton’s CleanWave™ Product
• WaterTectontics EC
technology
• Containerised with
100kVA generator
• 1000GPM
• Targeted at shale gas
operations
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Why Enva’s EC Solution?
• Technically it
– Optimised electrical connection using collars / bushes
– Delivered uniform consumption of electrodes
• This delivered
– Longer time between replacements
– Lower manpower & consumable costs
• Operationally
– Significant large scale operational experience
– Clear data on cost benefits
– Small compact units offering many advantages versus
alternative treatments
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Conclusions
• Extremely wide range of applications with many ‘magical’
claims and no lifecycle costs
– EC is a piece of an overall waste water treatment solution, not a stand
alone solution
– More detailed technical analysis would be required to determine true
market benefits to any specific application or implementation
• Wide range of small SME companies but few big players
– None of the global water treatment companies have implemented EC
• Only Oil & Gas seeing large scale investment
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Applications
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Changing Market Drivers
• Pressure to reduce water consumption (& increase recycling)
• Water shortages
• Increasing environmental cleanliness targets
• Pressure to reduce chemical use
 Requirement for “Green” solutions
• EC Sweet spot:
– Where there is water recycling requirement
– Where there are footprint or throughput considerations
– Heavy metals; suspended & colloidal solids; FOGs
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Oil & Gas Market
• Strong potential
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Coagulation is currently used in oil refineries
Electrocoagulation has been used in fracking
Remediation treatments of interest
High water reuse requirements
Contaminants suit EC (colloids, heavy metals)
• Ability to validate opportunity locally
– E.g. WhiteGate Refinery, UK refineries
• Recommendation
– Start approaching fracking and oil remediation companies to validate
opportunity / seek partners
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Mining Market
• Strong potential in ore processing
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Contaminants suit EC (heavy metals)
Enva already used EC for lead removal
Some EC already used in Uranium mining
High water reuse requirements
• Validation
– Can partially validate opportunity with local companies (e.g. Boliden
Tara Mines Limited,Vedanta Resources plc, UK Coal)
– Need global validation for other ore mines (e.g. Copper, Iron)
• Recommendation
– Need engagement with global engineering or water companies in this
space to validate opportunity / seek partners
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Paper and Pulp Conclusions
• Strong Potential
– Contaminants suit EC (tannin, lignin)
– EC already used in packaging plant
• (Smurfit Kappa)
– High water reuse requirements pulp
• but not for paper or engineered wood
• Validation
– Local companies which can be approached (e.g. Coillte, Smurfit Kappa
Group, UK & European pulp/paper mills)
• Recommendation
– Begin to engage with companies in this space to validate opportunity /
seek partners
– Need engagement with global water companies in this space to validate
opportunity / seek partners
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Route to Market
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Purpose
• Identify route to market options
• Support Enva in their determination of the desired
route forward based on
– Identified target applications
– End customer feedback in target markets
– Investment and resources
• Drive the route to market activities
– Engage with customers / licensees
– Gain interest
– Move to NDAs and negotiations
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What are the options?
Licensing
Product/Solution Offering
Identify Targets
Develop Model
Other EC
OEMS
Solution developers
End Users
Target Applications/End Users
What partners?
Technical/Development /Sales
Route to Market
Build and Test
Proposition
Build Business Case
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Route to market validation
• Business case built and validated against target markets
– Demand validated for pulp
– Demand validated for mining but would need to be supplied by large
global suppliers as part of full plants
– Demand validated for mining but high barriers to entry
– Engineering costs for prototype product ascertained
• Licence Proposition built
– Global waste water suppliers interested
– Oil remediation companies interested
– Other SME EC providers not approached as business case determined
licensee would need global reach and full solution provision
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Chosen Route
• Enva chose a licensing route because
– Key target markets are global and Enva cannot support
these markets
– Significant investment costs required to productise the EC
into a modular solution for these markets
– EC is a component of a waste water solution and would
be best offered by large water treatment companies
– Could outsource license campaign effort to TfI on a risk
sharing model resulting in low impact on Enva resources
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Status
• Ongoing engagement targeted on license deal
• Primary targets are global waste water treatment
players
– Good response with multiple global waste water
treatment companies interested
– Technology moving through multi-staged evaluation
processes
• Secondary targets are specialist application
companies (e.g. oil remediation, mining, etc...) and are
on hold
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