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Commonly Used Terms

Below you will find the terms and definitions that are used on BlueTech Research platform and our products. If you believe some of the terms are missing or unclear, please let us know.

WaTA Model

BlueTech Research has developed the Water Technology Adoption Model (WaTA), which is the subject of several peer-reviewed papers in academic journals. (O’Callaghan et al, Water Environment Research 2018). 

This model is widely referenced in the global water community as the definitive innovation adoption model that defines the timelines and drivers for water technology adoption and diffusion. It formed the basis for Paul O’Callaghan’s PhD thesis on the Dynamics of Water Innovation and is being adapted into an academic book.

The WaTA model enables the water sector to provide robust and transparent market analysis. The criteria and defined timelines described in this paper are foundational, and will be used as the basis for subsequent research and analysis to examine the success rates for different water technologies, and common factors linked to why some technologies succeed and others fail.

Intelligence Briefings

Monthly briefings that allow you to stay up-to-date with key developments in the water technology industry. They provide the distilled insights on new technologies, patent activity, acquisitions, investments, IPOs, and global market trends.

See the latest Intelligence Briefings

BluePrint Reports

Short distilled 101 guide on specific contaminants, markets and technologies. The reports provide a comprehensive overview of the treatment technology options, industry players and market share, overall market size and market opportunities.

See the latest BluePrint Reports

Insight Reports

Insight Reports provide an in-depth analysis of water technology markets, including insights and analysis of key technologies and market dynamic (barriers and entry opportunities). They are particularly useful for CTOs, CEOs and CFOs for competitive landscape mapping and for Strategic Investors and M&A groups for identifying new business and investment opportunities.

See the latest Insight Reports

Company Reports

Company Reports provide an in-depth analysis of water technology companies, with the insights into the technology, value proposition, overall business structure, market strategy, details of the patents and commercial installations. They provide invaluable data for competitive landscape mapping and identification of industry partners.

See the latest Company Reports

Innovation Impact Analysis™ Reports

Reports analyse the impact that the emerging innovations have on the developed technology markets and include solutions to address the pain points and disrupt existing market, as well as the timeline for the innovation’s impact and key players.

See the latest Innovation Impact Analysis Reports

Briefing Memos

Briefing Memos present expert commentary articles on the emerging trends, issues, and pain pointsi n the wide selection of water industry topics.

See the latest Briefing Memos

Horizon Scan

Horizon Scans take a look at specific technology areas and identify emerging innovations and players that are pushing the envelope, disrupting the market or leading in their areas.

See the latest Horizon Scans

BlueTruffle Rating

A proprietary score developed to assess water technology companies based on five factors

1. Large Addressable Market

A company is assigned one star if the global addressable market opportunity exceeds $500M.

2.  Strong Management Team

Evaluates whether the company has a seasoned management team with the right skills balance and relevant domain experience.

3. Strong IP Position

Evaluates if the technology has a strong, unique and defensible IP Position which will make it difficult for competitors to compete.

4. Innovative Technology / Business Model

Evaluates if this technology can provide improvement (more than 50%) on existing technology, or represents a new approach.

5. BlueTech Research expert opinion

Our “gut instinct” about the company’s prospects that is based on the expert opinion of the BlueTech’s Analyst or a member of Technology Assessment Group (TAG).

Innovation Tracker

A curated innovation watch-list of global water solutions with 600+ companies that have been screened and selected based on their innovative value proposition. Innovation Tracker allows you to sort companies by their technology development stage, velocity (company’s progress), revenue stage and geographically, as well as cross compare technologies.

See the latest entries in the Innovation Tracker

Disrupt-o-meter

A proprietary scale developed to identify companies with potentially disruptive technology offerings or business models. Each company is assigned one of three levels of disruptivity: low, moderate or high.

Low Disruptivity: A technology that isn’t likely to have a strong impact on the market or has an efficiency gain of less than 30%.

Moderate Disruptivity: A technology which represents a different way of doing things or a new approach with an efficiency gain of 30%-50%.

High Disruptivity: A technology or company which could change the current paradigm or provide in excess of a 50% gain in efficiency or cost saving relative to current solutions.

S-Curve

Water technology diffusion model that we are using to provide predictive analysis of future market growth. S-Curve is essential for determining the technology’s maturity level, its development dynamics and the market implications that come with it.

Technology Development Stages

Applied Research
Description of the stage: R&D done in a laboratory setting with view to developing a water treatment technology that can be applied to a real-world application.

Activities undertaken: Bench-scale tests using pilot reactors and synthetic feed streams to establish Proof of Concept.

Pilot Stage

Description of the stage: A prototype is being tested in the field, in a real-life application.

Activities undertaken: Pilot Stage testing is typically carried out to gather data on operation under real-world conditions that can be used as design criteria for the scale-up.

Demonstration stage

Description of the stage: To qualify as a demonstration stage, the system must be at a size and scale that would be practical in the real-world target applications and will form part of the formal commercial product offering. 

Activities undertaken: Construction and deployment of the technology (at least 3 installations) in full-scale systems in target applications.

 Early Adopters

Description of the stage: The technology is now a ‘proven technology’, but is not yet widely accepted by end users in the market. At this stage, commercial sales of first-generation units are taking place. At least 3 units operating at similar scale, in similar applications, at separate locations.

Activities undertaken: The technology is undergoing improvements and de-bugging and new generations of the technology are being released.

Early & Late Majority

Description of the stage: The technology is specified by consulting engineers, appears in tender documents and RFPs. At this stage, at least 3 companies offer versions of this technology and there are more than 25-30 full-scale units in operation.

Activities undertaken: The technology continues to improve, price tends to reduce, and process optimisation and engineering design become more efficient.

Velocity

A metric used to describe a company’s forward momentum and growth. BlueTech measures velocity as time taken to commercialise a technology and move it from applied research to late majority. By using the BlueTech Water Technology Diffusion model, we compare a company to standard industry timelines and characterise its velocity as above average, average, and below average.

Technology Movers

Emerging water technologies that we monitor, analyse, and keep a close eye on. The most promising Technology Movers are included in our monthly Intelligence Briefings.

BlueTech Alerts

A monthly selection of the most impactful water industry news, investment activity, and significant shifts in water technology market.