RELATED: 8 start-up tech firms bring their ideas to Hamilton
Eight water-technology companies are part of the first Pipeline “class” this year, and are working with universities, the Mill, local utilities and others to improve their chances of success, and find mentors and customers for their innovations.
The hope is that Greater Cincinnati can become a “Silicon Valley” of water-related innovation.
Melinda Kruyer, executive director of Confluence, a Greater Cincinnati non-profit organization that brings organizations together to solve water issues, said the award was deserved.
“We’ve been so impressed with the program, and the content, the quality of the program,” Kruyer said. The companies involved in the program “have gotten so much out of this, and it’s been a win all around.”
Several of the companies are local, and some already are producing products.
Hamilton company kWRiver Hydroelectric, for example, already is planning to build a 5 kiloWatt hydroelectric generator on the Great Miami River inside the city’s low-level dam south of downtown.
Another firm, WEL Enterprise, is creating water-recycling systems for micro-breweries, meat-packers, cheese-processors, steel-makers and municipal sewage treatment plants. It is working with Municipal Brew Works in Hamilton to recycle its byproducts.
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