The second day of the Pollutec Paris exhibition was highlighted by the Pollutec Innovation Challenge, a competition that provided ten project leaders with the opportunity to present their innovations before a jury of renowned experts from major companies and institutions: Pierre-Yves Burlot, Sustainable Development Director, Séché Environnement, Charlotte Migne, Vice-President of Sustainable Development, Suez Group, Jean-Guillaume Peladan, Director of Environmental Strategy, Sycomore Asset Management, Marie Bonniol, Marketing and Communications Director, EIT InnoEnergy, Isabelle Spiegel, Sustainable Development Director, Vinci and Eric Tardieu, Director General, International Office for Water – the winner was announced on the grandstand at 4:30 pm: Ilion Water Technologies.
The team at Ilion Water has developed a new generation desalination system that uses just a few volts of power, as opposed to mechanical high pressures of up to 60 bar. Water desalination is needed in a number of arid regions but the process is expensive and has a significant impact on the environment. Using nanofluidic and biomimetic membranes, Viro (Voltage Induced Reverse Osmosis) technology offers a straightforward and economical solution for purifying water through the membrane of any commercial desalination filters. This patented technology is the result of fundamental research by Lydéric Bocquet, Lucie Ries and Zachario Pilo at the Physics Laboratory of the École Normale Supérieure higher education institute (LPENS). Lydéric Bocquet is a pioneer in nanofluidics and in 2024 received the Innovation Medal from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). In September of this year, the Ilion start-up was a winner at the i-Lab innovation competition run by BPIFrance as part of the France 2030 initiative.
By winning the Pollutec Innovation Challenge, Ilion Water Technologies won a start-up stand at Pollutec 2025 in Lyon.