Q&A: Decentralized treatment technology transforms Fortune 50 F&B company's water management

An overview of the multi-year agreement

Bob Crossen: What were some of the drivers that drove the client’s need in this case, and how did this agreement come about?

Kevin Gast: The client operates a high-demand food and beverage production facilities where water quality, consistency, and sustainability are mission-critical. Increasing water discharge costs, tighter regulatory limits, and corporate sustainability goals drove the need for an onsite circular water solution. VVater’s technology allows the facility to recycle its process discharge directly into potable-grade water, eliminating discharge and reducing freshwater demand.

This agreement was reached following a joint engineering due diligence. The client sought a partner who could demonstrate true contaminant destruction, not just removal, and who could deliver a compact, chemical-free system with predictable performance under a long-term service model under significant time constraints. VVater was engaged based on its ability to support advanced reuse pathways and its experience integrating treatment solutions that reduce chemical dependency and operational complexity.

BC: Can you disclose the dollar figure of the agreement? Could you share the name of the F&B company?

KG: The financial terms and client identity remain confidential under a mutual non-disclosure agreement. However, it represents a multi-year, multimillion-dollar engagement.

What treatment looks like in the facility

BC: Could you explain the overall flowchart of the treatment train? How does water enter, flow through, and then discharge from the system? 

KG: Wastewater at the facility originates from wet and dry food production, CIP activities, and washdowns. These streams are collected through multiple on-site manholes and routed through mechanical pretreatment, including screening and primary solids separation, before entering a series of non-aerated lagoons that provide biological stabilization and settling.

The treatment begins at the final lagoon, where it provides initial settling. From there, the VVater process begins:

1. Farady Reactor (with internal AOP/ARP chambers) uses an alternating current, advanced low tension electroporation process (ALTEP), this is the heart of the system.
2. Advanced Dissolved Air Flotation (ADAF) generates micro- and nanobubbles that flocculate and precipitate solids, fats, and oils. The ADAF system is also fitted with pre-ARP Swing Reactor to accelerate the reduction processes.
3. Polishing and Reaction Tanks allow final clarification through cyclonic and cation exchange mechanisms.
4. DOPP13 –isa proprietary secondary safety disinfection step ensuring total disinfection and removal of any trace organics.
5. Storage tanks are used for ballast and back washing.
6. Optional Reverse Osmosis (RO) is included only when desalination, sodium, and chloride removal is required, as VVater’s technology does not desalinate.

This flow transforms lagoon effluent into potable-grade water, suitable for reuse in plant operations and provides drinking water, effectively creating a closed loop system.

BC: Will VVater be treating the water as a continuous flow, or is the system configured in batches to achieve the 40,000 GPD conversion rate? Will that flow rate be scalable or is it fixed?

KG: It’s a continuous-flow process, currently treating 40,000 gallons per day of influent and producing 40,000 gallons of potable-grade output per day, with expected wastage at 0.2%. The system is modular and fully scalable, additional Farady and ADAF modules can be added in parallel to expand capacity up to municipal or industrial scale (from 50,000 to 5 million GPD) without extensive process modifications.

Water reuse now and in the future

BC: The press release notes that VVater will convert the facility’s contaminated discharge into safe, potable drinking water. How will that potable water be used or repurposed?

KG: The treated water will be reused onsite for non-product applications such as wash water, cooling towers, and boiler feed. This drastically reduces the facility’s reliance on municipal water while lowering its discharge volume and environmental footprint. This enables a closed-loop reuse cycle, reducing both freshwater intake and wastewater discharge while improving the facility’s sustainability metrics. With the objective of eventually being utilized as drinking water and reused for manufacturing feedstock water.

BC: Does the agreement require that the treated water remain onsite, or is there potential for directing potable water to external uses in the future?

KG: This is for sole use of the customer, with no anticipated off-sell mandates for external users at this time.

Operations and maintenance over the long term

BC: Given the 10-year engagement, how will VVater operate and maintain the system day to day after commissioning? Are there additional job opportunities for professionals?

KG: VVater operates all systems remotely from its Command Center in Austin, Texas, which continuously monitors the entire installation. Every sensor, valve, circuit breaker, and even lighting elements within its systems are integrated into VVater’s digital control layer. Through advanced automation and data telemetry, the system operates autonomously and can be controlled, diagnosed, or adjusted remotely.

VVater’s upcoming Redstar AI platform will add predictive analytics, allowing the system to self-optimize and self-correct for flow, load, and power efficiency, ensuring round-the-clock reliability with minimal human intervention. VVater’s objective is to create an operator-friendly solution, that not only is intuitive but also reliable. Through our advanced automation systems and neural networks, VVater believes that one day we will achieve an Autonomous System Operator or ASO.

That said, VVater is one of the fastest-growing water technology companies in the United States, currently expanding its engineering, manufacturing, and operations teams to meet demand and currently various job opportunities!

BC: How do the smaller footprint and energy savings/reductions manifest specifically for this plant? Any figures you can share?