{"podcast":{"title":"(don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World","slug":"don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684","podcast_index_feed_id":429684,"rss_url":"https://feed.ausha.co/br23DCZ1GnG3","website_url":"https://dww.show","image_url":"https://image.ausha.co/aqeIcrBNGzFT8mIP6OvDO4mNiOTIvMgC4rdQTNqS_1400x1400.jpeg?t=1593422433","author":"Antoine Walter","episode_count":502,"summary":"❓ Ever wondered how the #WaterIndustry was reacting to our World's Water Challenges? Water Scarcity? #SDG6? PFAS? Climate Change? Circular Economy? Digitization and Smart Water? 💪 Get the Water Market pulse for free. In one hour per week, while you do the dishes! 📈 We talk water investment, water tech, water entrepreneurship and water market with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, book authors, scientists, investment funds, VCs, and C-Level experts from water majors. ➡️ Leverage their insights, advice & experience and ensure to stay on top of best practices 🗓️ Tune in every Wednesday (don't miss out! 😅) 🌐 Find all the detailed episode notes, interviews, infographics, and more at http://dww.show Currently in its 10th Season, the \"(don't) Waste Water\" podcast has already welcomed around 250 guests from Water Majors (SUEZ, Veolia, Jacobs, Xylem, Kemira, Evoqua, Aquatech, SKion Water...), Scale-Ups (Cambrian Innovation, Epic Cleantec, Gradiant, Liqtech, 374Water, Gingko Bioworks...), Start-Ups (Puraffinity, KETOS, 120Water, ZwitterCo, Membrion, Source...), Universities (Berkeley, the Columbia Water Center), Investment Funds (Sciens Water, Mazarine, Burnt Island Ventures...), Business Acc…","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684"},"episode":{"title":"This French Lab Wants to Replace Every Pump in Desalination (ilion Water Technologies)","slug":"this-french-lab-wants-to-replace-every-pump-in-desalination-ilion-water-technologies","published_at":"2026-03-16T08:45:16+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684/this-french-lab-wants-to-replace-every-pump-in-desalination-ilion-water-technologies","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684","url":"https://podcast.ausha.co/dont-waste-water/this-french-lab-wants-to-replace-every-pump-in-desalination-ilion-water-technologies","audio_url":"https://audio.ausha.co/od17QIXr0a7P.mp3?t=1773640658","summary":"Can 4 Volts of Electricity Replace 60 Bars of Pressure in Seawater Desalination? ilion Water Technologies is a 2025 spinout from the Physics Laboratory of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Their VIRO (Voltage-Induced Reverse Osmosis) technology claims to replace the high-pressure pump train in seawater desalination with an alternating electric field applied to engineered composite membranes, operating at atmospheric pressure. 🌶️ KEY SPICES 🌶️ ⚡ VIRO generates ~15 equivalent bars of pressure per applied volt, targeting the 60-bar threshold used in industrial seawater RO 💰 ilion closed a €3.8M ($4.46M) pre-seed co-led by Demea Sustainable Investment and Critical Path Ventures, plus €1.3M non-dilutive from Bpifrance, CNRS Innovation, PSL, and the ERC 🔬 The underlying research is peer-reviewed in Nature Materials with a scientific lineage tracing back to a 2013 Physical Review Letters paper 👨‍🔬 Scientific advisor Lydéric Bocquet (CNRS Innovation Medal 2024) previously took nanofluidics from lab to industrial pilot with Sweetch Energy (€40M raised, Rhône river deployment in 2024) 📊 The global RO + nanofiltration market reaches $6.14B TOTEX by 2030 at 6.1% CAGR, with RO commanding ~90% of dissolved solids removal 🪦 The graveyard of RO alternatives is pretty full with the recent addition of Aquaporin (21 years → collapse), to the existing Oasys Water ($31M fire sale), or memsys ($3M) 🥜 IN A NUTSHELL 🥜 How does VIRO actually work? Instead of mechanically forcing saltwater through a membrane at 60 bars, VIRO uses an alternating electric field on a composite membrane with nanoscale charge properties, creating an \"osmotic diode\" that rectifies water flow while blocking salt. What is ilion's current maturity level? TRL 4 (lab-validated), with no published specific energy cons…","meta_description":"Can 4 Volts of Electricity Replace 60 Bars of Pressure in Seawater Desalination? ilion Water Technologies is a 2025 spinout from the Physics Laboratory of…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2140,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684/episodes/this-french-lab-wants-to-replace-every-pump-in-desalination-ilion-water-technologies/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684/this-french-lab-wants-to-replace-every-pump-in-desalination-ilion-water-technologies.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}