Interview with Timo Fromm and Rudolf Borchardt, winners of the third EELISA Prototype Contest
Nine teams from six EELISA partner universities participated in the third EELISA Prototype Contest hosted by FAU in collaboration with JOSEPHS – The Open Innovation Lab in Nuremberg, Germany from 10 to 13 December 2024. In this third edition of the contest, the teams engaged in a four-day onsite co-creation workshop at JOSEPHS, where they learned about open innovation methods: The teams were taught how to better understand users and potential customers, how to develop and validate their prototypes, and how to successfully build market-ready innovations. On the final day of the workshop, the start-ups showcased their prototypes publicly at JOSEPHS’s open test space, inviting visitors and the general public to explore, test, and provide feedback to the teams. In a final pitch competition on Friday evening, all teams presented their prototype projects in front of a jury of experts and the general audience, who selected the winners of the 2024 EELISA Prototype Contest: CiX with their prototype of a modular water treatment system.
Our colleague Johanna Hojer spoke with the two founders of CiX, Timo Fromm and Rudolf Borchardt, about their prototype and their experiences from the workshop.
Timo: We are Rudi and Timo from CiX and as a team we are dedicated to protecting water quality. We are research associates at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at FAU and have collaboratively developed a technology that can break down pollutants in water. Our invention is based on a technology that has existed for some time, but whose widespread practical application has been prevented by high manufacturing and operating costs. In 2019, during our doctoral studies, we came up with an idea on how to improve the original technology – and we didn’t want that idea go to waste.
Rudi: We then participated in various start-up programs within the FAU Innovation Ecosystem, and in 2024, we successfully applied for EXIST Forschungstransfer- a German business Start-up Grant for members of universities and research institutes. In this process, two more team members joined us: Hanadi Ghanem and Benjamin Seemann, both colleagues and research associates at our chair.
(Foto: CIX)
What makes your technology so special?
Rudi: For over 20 years, diamond electrodes have been used in niche applications to eliminate pollutants in water. This works because of an electrochemical reaction between the diamond surface – which is applied as a thin coating to a substrate material – and water.
Timo: This technology has not yet gained traction because the diamond coating was previously applied to Niobium, a rare metal, which is both expensive and also considered a conflict material, as it is excavated under critical circumstances. Additionally, the technology is particularly effective the smaller the distance between the two partial electrodes anode and cathode are.
In a nutshell: we have found a regional ceramic material which is not only cheaper but also a harmless base material, and subsequently managed to develop a method to reduce the distance between the electrodes from a few millimeters to below 10 micrometers, thereby making the technology more efficient.
Why did you participate in the EELISA Prototype Contest?
(Foto: JOSEPHS)
Rudi: We generally have had very good experiences with such events – they have always accompanied us on our start-up journey and helped us along the way. As an engineer, I found it particularly interesting at the event that the focus was more on the technical aspect of the prototype, than on the business aspect. And it was great to have this experience in an international setting in order to exchange ideas and gain fresh perspectives from different teams from all over Europe.
What did you take away from the workshop?
Rudi: We were already familiar with many topics from the workshop from various other programs that we participated in – nevertheless, it was good to refresh our memory and focus what is important: for example, to not develop the product in isolation but to continuously talk to people and gather feedback. That was also one of the workshop tasks: to conduct interviews about our prototype with people at the Christmas market in Nuremberg. Since our product is intended for businesses and not for end consumers, it was a bit challenging for us, but certainly very helpful for the other start-ups. We need to conduct more of these interviews with our future customers, such as manufacturers of multistage water treatment systems.
Timo: And the interaction with the other teams and the visitors of the test space was also very interesting. For instance, there was a team that developed a special fish aquarium so we identified thematically interesting overlaps. But generally, it is so beneficial to talk to other start-ups and learn from their experiences in founding a start-up or seeking funding.
This time, we were one of the more experienced teams and could give back a lot of what we had learned from others in the past.
v.l.n.r: Rudi Borchardt, Benjamin Seemann, Hanadi Ghanem und Timo Fromm (Foto: CIX)
And what’s next for you?
Timo: Our EXIST funding runs until August 2025, so our next step is to seek follow-up funding! Although our prototype is already being tested by a textile finishing company, where we treat polluted water and examine the pollutant degredation– it is still a prototype that we cannot yet sell on a large scale and this is what we want to further develop in the near future. Additionally, we will officially found our start-up in the up-coming months!
More about CiX and their modular water treatment system
CiX developed a modular water treatment system, which can break down pollutants in water.
Their technology can alsotackle PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a group of human-made substances used, for example, in food packaging, waterproof textiles, and cosmetics. PFAS are also known as “forever chemicals” because they do not degrade naturally. As a result, PFAS accumulate in nature and in the human body, possibly leading to health issues such as kidney and testicular cancer and reduced fertility.
The EU has announced a limit and a tracking order for PFAS in drinking water effective in 2026. Additionally, a (partial) ban on PFAS in the EU is under discussion, with a decision expected in 2025. This forces PFAS processing industries to treat their wastewater to avoid further health risks, environmental damage, and penalties.
Currently there are not many technologies on the market that can extract PFAS out of water, this is why CiX is placing a special focus on this group of pollutants with their cost-effective and energy efficient solution.
Interview with Timo Fromm and Rudolf Borchardt, winners of the third EELISA Prototype Contest
Nine teams from six EELISA partner universities participated in the third EELISA Prototype Contest hosted by FAU in collaboration with JOSEPHS – The Open Innovation Lab in Nuremberg, Germany from 10 to 13 December 2024. In this third edition of the contest, the teams engaged in a four-day onsite co-creation workshop at JOSEPHS, where they learned about open innovation methods: The teams were taught how to better understand users and potential customers, how to develop and validate their prototypes, and how to successfully build market-ready innovations. On the final day of the workshop, the start-ups showcased their prototypes publicly at JOSEPHS’s open test space, inviting visitors and the general public to explore, test, and provide feedback to the teams. In a final pitch competition on Friday evening, all teams presented their prototype projects in front of a jury of experts and the general audience, who selected the winners of the 2024 EELISA Prototype Contest: CiX with their prototype of a modular water treatment system.
Our colleague Johanna Hojer spoke with the two founders of CiX, Timo Fromm and Rudolf Borchardt, about their prototype and their experiences from the workshop.
Timo: We are Rudi and Timo from CiX and as a team we are dedicated to protecting water quality. We are research associates at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at FAU and have collaboratively developed a technology that can break down pollutants in water. Our invention is based on a technology that has existed for some time, but whose widespread practical application has been prevented by high manufacturing and operating costs. In 2019, during our doctoral studies, we came up with an idea on how to improve the original technology – and we didn’t want that idea go to waste.
Rudi: We then participated in various start-up programs within the FAU Innovation Ecosystem, and in 2024, we successfully applied for EXIST Forschungstransfer- a German business Start-up Grant for members of universities and research institutes. In this process, two more team members joined us: Hanadi Ghanem and Benjamin Seemann, both colleagues and research associates at our chair.
What makes your technology so special?
Rudi: For over 20 years, diamond electrodes have been used in niche applications to eliminate pollutants in water. This works because of an electrochemical reaction between the diamond surface – which is applied as a thin coating to a substrate material – and water.
Timo: This technology has not yet gained traction because the diamond coating was previously applied to Niobium, a rare metal, which is both expensive and also considered a conflict material, as it is excavated under critical circumstances. Additionally, the technology is particularly effective the smaller the distance between the two partial electrodes anode and cathode are.
In a nutshell: we have found a regional ceramic material which is not only cheaper but also a harmless base material, and subsequently managed to develop a method to reduce the distance between the electrodes from a few millimeters to below 10 micrometers, thereby making the technology more efficient.
Why did you participate in the EELISA Prototype Contest?
Rudi: We generally have had very good experiences with such events – they have always accompanied us on our start-up journey and helped us along the way. As an engineer, I found it particularly interesting at the event that the focus was more on the technical aspect of the prototype, than on the business aspect. And it was great to have this experience in an international setting in order to exchange ideas and gain fresh perspectives from different teams from all over Europe.
What did you take away from the workshop?
Rudi: We were already familiar with many topics from the workshop from various other programs that we participated in – nevertheless, it was good to refresh our memory and focus what is important: for example, to not develop the product in isolation but to continuously talk to people and gather feedback. That was also one of the workshop tasks: to conduct interviews about our prototype with people at the Christmas market in Nuremberg. Since our product is intended for businesses and not for end consumers, it was a bit challenging for us, but certainly very helpful for the other start-ups. We need to conduct more of these interviews with our future customers, such as manufacturers of multistage water treatment systems.
Timo: And the interaction with the other teams and the visitors of the test space was also very interesting. For instance, there was a team that developed a special fish aquarium so we identified thematically interesting overlaps. But generally, it is so beneficial to talk to other start-ups and learn from their experiences in founding a start-up or seeking funding.
This time, we were one of the more experienced teams and could give back a lot of what we had learned from others in the past.
And what’s next for you?
Timo: Our EXIST funding runs until August 2025, so our next step is to seek follow-up funding! Although our prototype is already being tested by a textile finishing company, where we treat polluted water and examine the pollutant degredation– it is still a prototype that we cannot yet sell on a large scale and this is what we want to further develop in the near future. Additionally, we will officially found our start-up in the up-coming months!
More about CiX and their modular water treatment system
CiX developed a modular water treatment system, which can break down pollutants in water.
Their technology can alsotackle PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a group of human-made substances used, for example, in food packaging, waterproof textiles, and cosmetics. PFAS are also known as “forever chemicals” because they do not degrade naturally. As a result, PFAS accumulate in nature and in the human body, possibly leading to health issues such as kidney and testicular cancer and reduced fertility.
The EU has announced a limit and a tracking order for PFAS in drinking water effective in 2026. Additionally, a (partial) ban on PFAS in the EU is under discussion, with a decision expected in 2025. This forces PFAS processing industries to treat their wastewater to avoid further health risks, environmental damage, and penalties.
Currently there are not many technologies on the market that can extract PFAS out of water, this is why CiX is placing a special focus on this group of pollutants with their cost-effective and energy efficient solution.
More information about CiX: www.cixgreentech.de