NorTech has developed a water technology roadmap to accelerate job growth and regional economic impact in Northeast Ohio's water technology industry over the next seven years. The water technology roadmap provides a detailed vision and action plan to achieve growth in this sector by focusing on Northeast Ohio's core assets, markets, strengths and competitive advantage. NorTech is working with its partners in the water technology cluster and the region's economic development ecosystem to implement the water technology action plan.
Organizations with Core Technologies
| ABB Inc | DeNora Tech | National Instruments |
| *ABS Materials/PWA | Dudick | *Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District |
| Advanced Polymer Coatings | E3 Materials | Norwalk Wastewater Equipment |
| *Alliance for Water Future | ENPAC | OM Group |
| *Akron Polymer Systems | *Fairmount Water Solutions | Pepperl & Fuchs |
| Applied Specialties | Filtrexx International | PolyOne Corp. |
| BioREM USA | *Fourth Economy | *Precision Analytical |
| Blair Rubber | Gabriel Performance Products | *Rockwell Automation |
| *Case Western Reserve University | *Great Lakes Biomimicry Collaborative | Rovisys |
| Clark-Reliance Filtration | *Imaging Systems Technology | Tesla NanoCoatings |
| *Clean WaterNet | Kent State University | TriCor Metals |
| Cleveland State University | Light Curable Coatings | United Titanium |
| *Cuyahoga County Planning Commission | Lubrizol/ Corzan | *University of Akron |
| Advanced Polymer Coatings | *MAGNET | URS Corp. |
| Cohesant Technologies | *MAR Systems | *Youngstown State University |
| College of Wooster | McGean-Rohco | *Zinkan Enterprises |
| Columbia Chemical | *Met-Chem | |
| ControlSoft | Mesocoat | |
| Corrpro | Momentive Specialty Chemicals | |
| These 54 organizations in 3 sectors account for approximately 338 employees and $72 million in revenue in 2011 in Northeast Ohio. | ||
Sectors
|
Automation and Control |
Automation and controls manage industrial water processing systems. As the reality of water resource privatization unfolds in other parts of the world, global industry will rely heavily on automation and control to more efficiently treat and provide water for burgeoning populations. As this technology becomes best practice, growth in U.S. regulatory driven markets will be more likely to follow |
| Sorbents |
A sorbent is a material that removes heavy metals, hydrocarbons or other organic contaminants from water. The variety of sources (stormwater runoff/combined sewer overflow, drinking water, shale gas produced water and industrial spills) requiring treatment to meet increasingly strict regulations for an expanding variety of contaminant species will require similar diversity in sorbent removal technologies. |
| Water System Corrosion Protection |
Water System Corrosion Protection is comprised of coatings, linings, materials, chemical treatment, and cathodic protections that prevent equipment corrosion. The global need for preventative and restorative corrosion protection technology for both industrial and municipal water infrastructure is staggering. According to the World Corrosion Organization, annual costs of corrosion exceed $1.8 trillion, roughly 3-4% of the GDP of industrialized nations. |
Regional Action Plan
Roadmap Initiative 1: Develop a regional water technology cluster branding and education campaign that builds national and international awareness of regional capabilities in each of the focus technologies, culminating in a strong regional presence at Singapore’s International Water Week in July 2014.
- Engage sector organizations in developing the brand messages and identifying target markets.
- Develop and incorporate an independent, credible economic case for specific regional technologies.
- Share messages via media engagement and high exposure conferences and trade shows.
Roadmap Initiative 2: Clarify a high-potential application focus that leverages Northeast Ohio’s Corrosion Protection competence. Identify and implement at least one high-profile collaborative pilot project by 2016.
- Clarify the breadth of regional water infrastructure corrosion protection solutions and providers.
- Quantify and articulate costs and opportunities associated with industrial water infrastructure corrosion.
- Engage interested companies and/or research institutes to define a focus for high-profile collaboration.
- Evaluate the opportunity for proposing a National Network of Manufacturing Innovation Corrosion Protection Institute in Northeast Ohio.
Roadmap Initiative 3: Build national and international credibility for regional stormwater technologies by partnering with NEORSD on at least one major consent decree project by 2015.
- Facilitate conversations about technology criteria and availability between NEORSD and sector members.
- Identify and prioritize high impact regional collaboration opportunities on consent decree projects.
- Assign and implement additional actions to complete the priority project(s), with incorporated metrics.
Roadmap Initiative 4: Identify at least two high-potential commercialization projects in each focus technology by the end of 2013 and partner with each project team to shorten their time-to-market.
- Investigate and document the region’s commercialization pipeline of products/projects with potential to drive job creation.
- Evaluate product/project trends and synergies to identify high-potential application or market sectors to prioritize.
- Select two export-ready products/projects and provide to MAGNET to develop export strategies.
Roadmap Initiative 5: Identify regional education and training providers and programs related to focus technologies and connect to cluster organizations looking for specialized talent for hire or internships.
- Engage regional education and training providers and programs related to focus technologies to document offerings related to focus technologies.
- Identify focus technology companies with newly commercialized or near-commercial products with existing or pending talent needs.