Meet-the-buyer GreenCape

Cambridge Cleantech is partnering with GreenCape in order to help the city of Cape Town in South Africa find innovative cost-effective solutions in brine management.

If interested, companies should register their interest through this form. More detailed information will be given to the selected companies in early 2020.

Meet the Buyer events offer interesting opportunities for your company to get in touch with the leading enterprises in a variety of business sectors. The event is invite only and will give you the chance to have an individual one-to-one meeting with key decision makers. Join the event, establish valuable collaborations, pitch your products and services, and discuss business partnerships that can fast-forward your company’s growth.

Buyer profile

What is the background?

During the recent drought, many commercial and industrial companies in Cape Town turned to groundwater exploration to ensure security of water supply. However, in many areas, the groundwater quality is highly saline, and requires treatment with technologies such as reverse osmosis (RO) membranes before use. This leaves a highly concentrated, saline wastewater termed ‘brine’. Several factors make the discharge and treatment of brine complex and expensive, and companies have been struggling to find well-suited, cost-effective solutions to handle it. 

The situation has been worsened by a national liquids-to-landfill ban that came into effect in August 2019 that prohibits the discharge of any wastewater to landfills. Discharge of brine in an almost-solid form, however, will still be permitted until 2021, after which brine waste will no longer be accepted at landfills.

 This challenge is not unique to Cape Town or South Africa and we are eager to hear about innovative solutions or case studies from the international cleantech community.

GreenCape will be hosting a workshop in Cape Town in April/May 2020 (funded by the City of Cape Town). The workshop will bring together government officials, commercial and industrial businesses and brine management companies to create an awareness of the challenge, discuss solutions and showcase international examples of how this could be tackled successfully (including an exhibition component).

How can you apply?

If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply through this link before Monday 13th January 2020 and briefly indicate the interest of your company in this case. For more information, you can contact Jane Reddick at jane@greencape.co.za .

You can also contact your regional SCALE-UP partner.