EIC-backed Hydrovolta and SonixED: procurement support, pilots and next steps

Hydrovolta, an EIC-supported company from Leuven, Belgium, markets SonixED™, a containerised high-recovery desalination system aimed at brackish groundwater, hard water and saline sources. The system pairs electrodialysis reversal with ultrasonic anti-scaling and a selective membrane coating. With support from the European Innovation Council’s Innovation Procurement Programme, delivered under the SPIN4EIC initiative, Hydrovolta has been able to accelerate international pilots and formalise public sector collaborations beyond Europe, notably in Australia and Saudi Arabia.

What SonixED is claimed to do

Hydrovolta positions SonixED as a mid- to large scale alternative to conventional reverse osmosis in specific contexts. The company highlights three technical advantages: far higher usable water recovery in suitable feeds, strong scaling control through ultrasound, and selective ion removal that can preserve beneficial minerals and enable targeted extraction from brines. The company also says the system reduces chemical use and maintenance compared with some membrane processes.

Hydrovolta advertises up to 98 percent water recovery in appropriate applications and residual brine volumes in the range of 2 to 5 percent in selected cases. Those figures, if replicated across many sites, would materially change project economics for inland desalination where brine disposal is a major cost. The company’s SonixED design is patented and was developed over institutional research partnerships. The patent was granted in 2021 and the technology progressed through H2020 / SME instrument funding and EIC support.

How the EIC Innovation Procurement Programme and SPIN4EIC helped

Hydrovolta attributes part of its international expansion to assistance from the EIC Innovation Procurement Programme powered by SPIN4EIC. That programme is designed to increase EIC awardees’ ability to win public and private tenders inside and outside Europe. Its offer includes training academies and tailored Procurement Assistance Services such as opportunity identification, bid assessment and tender preparation, plus contractual and intellectual property advice.

SPIN4EIC sits inside the EIC Business Acceleration Services. It works alongside related EIC initiatives such as InnoBuyer, a 2 million euro Horizon Europe coordination action that pilots a demand-driven co-creation process between public buyers and EIC-backed SMEs, and InnoMatch, which co-funds proof-of-concept and pilot testing of EIC innovations. InnoMatch indicates support for dozens of pilots with up to about €60,000 per pilot, while InnoBuyer focuses on buyer-solver co-creation and preparing terms of reference for future tenders.

Pilots in Australia and Saudi Arabia

With SPIN4EIC assistance Hydrovolta advanced two notable external engagements. In Australia, the company is running a groundwater demonstration with a public utility partner in the Perth region. The EIC programme supported Hydrovolta on procurement-related contractual aspects of the collaboration. The Perth work appears to be a multi-site utility pilot aimed at selective nitrate and salinity removal and regulatory monitoring.

In Saudi Arabia, SPIN4EIC provided strategic procurement guidance for a research collaboration with the kingdom’s leading public water authority. That engagement is described as development-stage with signed memoranda of understanding. Both engagements are presented by Hydrovolta as steps toward international validation, IP protection in contractual terms, and the creation of repeatable contractual models for future public sector sales.

Why procurement support matters for water startups

Context, caveats and realistic expectations

Hydrovolta’s claims on recovery and brine volumes are striking if broadly reproducible. However, desalination performance is highly feed-specific. Silica, hardness, total dissolved solids and the presence of organic fouling agents all affect outcomes. Ultrasonic scale control and EDR can reduce certain failure modes but they do not remove the need to validate energy consumption, real world maintenance regimes, lifecycle costs and resilience at scale.

Procurement-facilitated pilots are essential steps but pilots are not proof of long term commercial viability. Many technologies reach pilot or demonstration stage in multiple jurisdictions and still struggle to deliver bankable projects because of OPEX, energy costs, local operations capability and evolving regulatory expectations. Intellectual property clauses in procurement contracts are helpful but do not by themselves create market demand.

From a policy perspective, the EIC suite of services addresses persistent gaps for European deep tech firms: access to buyers, help with tenders, and co-funded pilot frameworks that reduce customer risk. The EIC’s approach mixes training, matchmaking and modest financial support to de-risk initial procurements. That model has promise but it also depends on buyers being willing to adapt procurement rules and budgets to favour innovation.

EIC Business Acceleration Services at a glance

The wider EIC Business Acceleration Services offer a portfolio of supports grouped around contracts, contacts and skills. The programme publishes impact metrics and runs multiple complementary activities such as corporate partnership days, trade fair participation, investor outreach and scale-up programmes.

Bottom line and outlook

Hydrovolta’s story illustrates how targeted procurement support can help an EU deep tech firm secure international pilots and structure collaborations with public buyers. That is a meaningful enabler because it helps reduce one of the major commercial barriers for engineering-heavy innovations. At the same time, pilot contracts and procurement advice are an early stage of market entry. Independent operational data across diverse source waters, transparent energy and cost metrics, and multi-year field performance will be needed to confirm the economic and environmental case beyond the demonstration phase.

For policymakers and programme designers the Hydrovolta example underscores two points. First, procurement-focused assistance is a valuable complement to R&D and grant support for scaling deep tech. Second, success depends on combining legal and procurement advice with clinical operational validation and buyers willing to accept some early adopter risk. The EIC instruments do not guarantee commercial success but they can materially improve the odds for companies that pair credible technology claims with rigorous pilot data and realistic business models.