Media Release: https://thewatercouncil.com/media/newsroom/releases/the-water-council-announces-spring-2020-tech-challenge-results/
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (June 24, 2020) – The Water Council today announced the results and winners of its third-round Tech Challenge competition, selected by corporate sponsors A. O. Smith, Badger Meter and Zurn Industries, a Rexnord company. The challenge finalist, Pyro-E Inc., is helping cities to create a proactive water leak detection program using a self-powered sensor network. Assessing, tracking, and mitigating the amount of non-revenue water (NRW) could recover up to 10-15% of revenue for water municipalities.
Pyro-E enables persistent monitoring of water leakage through technology. The drop-in replacement hardware resembles a pressure regulating valve and can harvests energy from hydrostatic pressure fluctuations. The latter occurs across minute, hour, and daily bases, which can be harnessed for electricity to power remote monitoring devices. For leak detection, any abnormal pressure drops or fluctuations would suggest the likely event of a main break in the local distribution network. To pinpoint the leak, Pyro-E’s energy harvester will couple with acoustic microphones for autonomous water network monitoring. A field pilot is sought to address the feasibility of assessing, diagnosing, and mitigating water loss at large scales.
About The Water Council
Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next to the world’s largest freshwater system and home to one of the most influential freshwater technology hubs in the world, The Water Council (TWC) is recognized as a global center for advancing water technologies and stewardship. At its heart, TWC is a non-profit, membership organization that connects, convenes and showcases the hub comprised of more than 238 water technology businesses and the diverse water leadership network of 200 members it is linked to from around the world. While TWC’s mission is centered on driving economic development, attracting and connecting world-class talent and supporting water-focused technology innovation, its larger goal is to help secure freshwater resources for the world by driving solutions to the numerous industries that need and use a large amount of water. Learn more by visiting thewatercouncil.com.