Israeli Water Treatment Company UET
Ilan Sosnovitch of Israeli Water Treatment Company UET talks to Fiona Tankard Lister
UET’s Marketing and Business Development Manager, Ilan Sosnovitch, is a passionate advocate for his company’s innovative, ecological way to treat water. Even after eight years working for the company, he is still full of enthusiasm for this ground breaking, life changing technology.
“Most people don’t realise that globally, over 25 percent of all drinking water is used for industrial applications,” he says. “In some industrialized countries, like Italy, Turkey and the USA, it’s 40 percent. And of that, up to 90 percent is wasted. We’re talking millions and millions of cubic meters here, just being washed down the drain.”
The figures are indeed shocking. Such huge amounts of water are needed because of the chemicals used to treat it, which don’t allow multiple reuse of the water, and the use of alternative water sources of lesser quality. But Ilan is not deterred, in fact it just makes him all the more determined to get the word out there. Because he works for a company that makes a real difference, reducing this wastage by up to 80 percent using a water treatment process that employs no chemicals, is entirely self-contained and extremely low maintenance. He has seen UET (and no, sadly, it is not pronounced as the highly appropriate “wet”, but by its initials U.E.T!) grow its market share exponentially over the last few years as they make steady inroads into this conservative and cautious industry.
The Big Scale Discovery
UET was founded in 1992 by David Sherzer, a water chemical engineering expert. He had been constantly frustrated by the twin demons of limescale and corrosion in his work as a chemical engineer and the problem was always there at the back of his mind. A serendipitous round of golf in Australia led to his Eureka moment. When retrieving his golf ball from a small creek beside the course, he noticed that the water had deposited scale at one point, yet beyond that point there was no more scale to be seen! It was quite a mystery, and one that David was determined to solve. Little did he know that the explanation he found would change the course of his life forever.
For a visionary and passionate person like David, what he discovered when he tested the water was of spine-tingling significance. The water in the creek had removed just enough of the problem mineral by itself to completely clear and balance the whole system. Nature had provided the perfect answer to the problem that had been clogging up industrial systems for years, with no chemicals or additives in sight.
He left his job and spent five years researching and experimenting with just one objective in mind: to replicate how nature dealt with scale deposits. He developed a dynamic chemical engineering algorithm and then invented a reactor which used an electronic process to remove limescale from water without chemicals. The somewhat stagnant world of water treatment was about to be re-energized and revolutionized thanks to David’s environmentally-friendly system. He founded UET to market this new technology, protected by nine patents. Unsurprisingly, it was quickly adopted by Israeli industry and today over five thousand units have been installed worldwide. Their market is industry, although developing smaller units for home use in the company business plan to be implemented at some time in the future.
After 25 years, the hard work of “planting seeds” as Ilan puts it, is now starting to pay off. “This year we’ve doubled the number of units we exported last year.” UET has worldwide strategic partnerships and its main customers are in North America and Brazil, South Africa, China and Australia. It is now targeting Europe, with clients already in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy.
“We’re seriously discussing opening an office in Europe,” says Ilan. “There’s so much interest in what we do there, we have a great product for a large market. It’s just a matter of setting up the infrastructure to make that happen.”
China Connection
Ilan met Ben Radomski of Business e Via Italy (BEV) in March 2017 through the company’s listing in Innovations in Israel. This was quickly followed by an in-person visit to BEV’s headquarters in Milan.
“Ben was extremely professional,” says Ilan. “He told me of a serious client in China who was looking for an environmental water solution for a project in Beijing. Shortly after that the owner of the Chinese company and his team came to see us in Israel and the visit concluded with an initial partnership agreement to supply units for the project. Since then, David has visited the project and offices in China and we are hopeful our relationship will continue long term. Ben has also a lot of good contacts in the Italian market and we hope to develop these too.”
Ilan was impressed not just with the speed and efficiency of his dealings with BEV, but also the quality of the introductions in BEV’s network. “You can see that the contacts BEV brings to the table are very appreciative of Ben and his efforts. They know that any people they are introduced to are serious and looking to do business, not time wasters. We are extremely happy with the results so far.”
And what of the future for UET? What is this dynamic company going to do next? “We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing,” explains Ilan modestly. “It seems to be working. People are really starting to get the message, they understand how important it is to save water and to treat it ecologically. It’s been a hard struggle sometimes, but it’s starting to pay off.”
The UET story is an inspirational and positive one. No wonder Ilan Sosnovitch loves his job. Not everyone gets the opportunity to change the world.
UET – Naturally Treating Water