LiqTech International Stock

LiqTech International, Inc. (LiqTech), a clean technology company, provides gas and liquid purification products by manufacturing ceramic silicon carbide filters, membranes and providing engineered systems.

The company has developed and manufactured products of re-crystallized silicon carbide. The company specializes in three business areas: ceramic membranes for liquid filtration systems, diesel particulate filters (DPFs) to control soot exhaust particles from diesel engines, and plastic components for usage in various industries. Using nanotechnology, the company develops proprietary products using patented silicon carbide technology. The company's products are based on unique silicon carbide membranes that facilitate new applications and improve existing technologies. The company markets its products from the company's office in Denmark and through local representatives and distributors. The products are shipped directly to customers from the company's production facilities in Denmark.

The company conducts its operations in the Kingdom of Denmark. The company's Danish operations are located in the Copenhagen area, Hobro, and Aarhus. The company also sells its products through distributors and agents in many other countries, such as China, Korea, Spain, the U.K., France, the Middle East, Singapore, and the U.S. Moreover, the company has established customer relationships in more than 25 countries.

Products

The company manufactures and sells a broad range of systems and products based on the application of the company's ceramic filters and membranes for the filtration of liquids and gases within a range of uses, such as industrial wastewater, acid purification, oil and gas, commercial pool, non-road machinery, marine, and other industrial applications. The company also provides engineered plastic parts and products for various internal and external industrial applications, including the food and beverage and pharmaceutical industries.

Silicon Carbide Ceramic Membranes for Liquid Filtration

LiqTech has developed, manufactured, and sold innovative silicon carbide ceramic filtration technologies for liquid and gas purification. The company's product portfolio consists of silicon carbide ceramic membranes for liquid purification and diesel particulate filters for emission control. The company also engineers, assembles and tests engineered systems for water filtration applications. Based on the company's continuous R&D efforts, patented technologies, and evolved production methods, the company is able to produce silicon carbide filters.

The company's membranes are manufactured with a silicon carbide ceramic membrane based on the company's patented technology with the portfolio consisting of:

CoMem Silicon Carbide (SiC) ceramic membranes, a unique patented technology designed as a tubular membrane. It utilizes a crossflow structure to handle high concentrations of suspended solids found in produced water from the oil and chemical industry, wastewater from industrial processes and manure filtration, and other applications. It offers consistent removal of oil and suspended solids at high throughput rates regardless of feed conditions. The company offers onshore and offshore solutions and have experience within acid, chemicals and produced water streams. The company's SiC filters are the best alternative to micro filtration and walnut shell filters due to the operational efficiencies of the company's SiC filters, including operating cost savings, reduced installation cost, and product resilience. The company's chemically inert, plug-and-play membranes are extremely hard, chemically resistant, and consisting of durable ceramics with high flux (flow). SiC membranes are stronger, harder, longer-lasting, more temperature-resistant, and recover faster than conventional ceramic or polymeric membranes.

Hybrid Technology Membranes (HTM), a patented asymmetric membrane that combines the desired properties from silicon carbide (SiC) and zirconia (ZrO2) ceramics. With a pore size of 60 nanometers (nm), it is suitable for ultrafiltration applications. This membrane technology facilitates new separation processes and new filtration applications.

Aqua Solution, which integrates a dead-end structural design with cutting-edge membrane technology in a solution specifically designed for applications including pre-treatment, wastewater treatment, and swimming pool and spa water filtration. The company's Aqua Solution offers the same water flow as conventional sand filters, which typically require up to 400 times more space and have pore sizes at least three times larger than the company's SiC membranes. The Aqua Solution also reduces the number of membrane elements, pressure vessels, and overall reduces both water and energy consumption, including lower CO2 footprint, by offering high-flow capabilities at very low pressure with improved filtration characteristics.

Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) for Gas Purification

The company offers diesel particulate filters for exhaust emission control solutions to the verified retrofit and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market through the company's direct sales force, and distributors specializing in sales to end-users. The company uses a proprietary 'nano wash coat' to provide a catalytic coating for anything from diesel particulate filters to catalytic converters. The company's DPF products are sold worldwide under the LiqTech brand.

The company has developed a robust silicon carbide diesel particulate filter that is especially effective for vehicles, generators, marine and non-road applications that produce a high soot load. If properly maintained, a LiqTech DPF can last as long as the application machinery or engine. The company's DPFs are ideal for both on and off-road vehicles and machinery because of their strength, chemical non-reactive nature, temperature resilience, and thermal conductivity.

The company's DPF filters can handle higher soot loads than filters that do not use a silicon carbide membrane, making them ideal for situations in which engines infrequently reach high enough temperatures to burn off the soot. Examples include garbage trucks and port vehicles; diesel pickup trucks not carrying a full load; intra-city vehicles that do not reach highway speeds; off-road construction vehicles that idle for long periods of time; marine 'black carbon' exhaust applications; and back-up generators and general 'gen-set' applications.

Liquids Filtration Systems & Solutions

LiqTech develops, manufactures, and sells liquid filtration systems using the company's patented silicon carbide technology (sometimes also referred to herein as the company's 'Aqua Solution, SiC and HTM membranes'). The company's focus is to strengthen its position within certain industrial applications, such as acid purification, metal cooling, and hydrocarbon production-derived contaminated water, which the company refers to herein as 'produced water'. Furthermore, the company remains focused on its legacy segments within marine scrubber wastewater, pool, metal & mining, and other energy applications.

The company's filtration systems have been used in the following applications by the company's clients:

Industrial Applications: The company has delivered complete liquid filtration systems for aggressive fluid applications, such as heavy metal removal for energy providers and water treatment systems for mining wastewater for European mining companies. Furthermore, the company's systems have been deployed successfully to reduce OPEX and increase product quality in acid purification applications.

Produced Water: The company's systems can be used for the filtration of produced water, which is a byproduct of oil and gas production. The amount of produced water varies from 0.1 to 10 times the amount of oil produced. The company has performed testing with major international oil and gas operators. The company's solution is market-proven and applicable for onshore and offshore operations with a focus on enhanced oil recovery 'EOR' for more sustainable operations.

MEG: The company's silicon carbide membrane technology can be deployed in filtration systems related to monoethylene glycol ('MEG') recovery within the oil & gas industry. MEG is widely used by oil & gas producers in wellheads and pipelines to prevent hydrate formation in pipeline conditions. In deep water offshore gas production facilities, where the exposure to lower temperatures in subsea pipelines is common, MEG is used for hydrate inhibition. Together with the company's clients, the company has demonstrated the SiC membrane technology performance and verified significant performance improvements to the MEG regeneration process when compared to other membrane technologies.

Marine Scrubber Wastewater: The company supplies water filtration systems for marine scrubber systems that may be deployed on ships to reduce sulfur emissions stemming from heavy fuel oil (HFO) operations, allowing vessels to comply with the IMO 2020 sulfur cap. As of December 31, 2022, more than 250 water treatment systems have been installed, with orders from European and Asian scrubber technology providers, shipyards, and ship owners.

Pool and Spa Water: The company has supplied turnkey water filtration systems for medium to very large public swimming pool installations in Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company's Aqua Solution ceramic membranes provide unique advantages for the commercial pool filtration industry in terms of reduced energy consumption, lower CO2 emissions, smaller footprint, reduced water and chemical consumption, and consistent, high-quality water filtration.

Food and Beverage Applications: The company's high-quality filtration system can be deployed in the food and beverage industry to significantly reduce chemical and wastewater taxes.

Highly Flexible & Innovative Plastic Manufacturing

LiqTech provides highly flexible and innovative plastics manufacturing, focusing on machining, welding, bending, and solvent cementing. With an intense focus on customer demand, LiqTech serves market leaders in the clean technology, pharmaceuticals, foods, healthcare, and graphics industries. Furthermore, LiqTech Plastics delivers benefits through vertical integration by manufacturing some key components for the fabrication and assembly into the Liquids Filtration Systems for pool and marine scrubber applications.

Strategy

The company's strategy is to leverage the company's core competencies in material science, advanced filtration, and systems integration, creating differentiated products with compelling value propositions to penetrate attractive end markets with regulatory and ESG tailwinds. Essential imperatives associated with the company's strategy are to develop and reinforce new products and applications to provide clean water and reduce pollution; better penetrate existing end markets where the company's value proposition is strong; and develop new end markets for the company's core products and applications.

Manufacturing

The company manufactures its membrane and DPF products in Ballerup, Denmark (Copenhagen area). The company assembles its water treatment systems in Hobro, Denmark, and the company manufactures plastic products in the company's facility located in Aarhus, Denmark. The company plans to expand and optimize the company's production capacity within the existing facilities with further support from existing partnerships across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.

Sales, Marketing and Business Intelligence

The company's products and services are sold both directly and indirectly to end clients across multiple jurisdictions and end-markets through direct sales, systems integrators, distributors, agents, and partners.

The company initially focused on selling DPF filters to the automotive industry to reduce exhaust gas emissions in diesel engines. In 2014, the company acquired Provital Solutions, a Danish filtration system manufacturing company, which enabled the company to broaden the company's offering of products and systems for ceramics filters, SiC membranes and modular liquid filtration systems. The liquid filtration systems business has become a highly complementary offering to the company's existing SiC membrane and DPF business.

The company plans to actively market its existing products to new customers as the company penetrates new markets and optimizes its manufacturing capacity. As of March 2023, the company employed eleven full-time sales, marketing and strategy people in addition to partnership and distribution agents. The company promotes its products through direct sales to potential customers and marketing activities, such as participation in tradeshows and exhibitions, with a heavy focus on digital marketing.

In certain instances, the company's products are delivered to the end customer through system integrators. These system integrators use the company's filtration products and membranes in larger filtration systems, which eventually are installed in systems used by the end customer.

Intellectual Property

The company has one issued patent in the United States that the company co-owns with a third party, two issued patents in Denmark, three issued foreign patents (Germany, China, and South Korea) that the company co-owns with a third party, and one pending European patent application that the company co-owns with a third party. The United States patent that the company co-owns is generally effective for 20 years from the filing date (July 8, 2004) of the earliest U.S. or international application to which it claims priority. The scope and duration of each of the company's foreign patents vary in keeping with local laws. On July 7, 2014, the company obtained a new Danish patent application related to the company's silicon carbide membrane technology.

As of March 2023, the company had three trademark registrations in China and four trademark registrations in Denmark (AQUA SOLUTION, CoMem, CDPX, and FUTURE FILTRATION).

Research and Development

The company's research and development expenses were $1,835,890 for the year ended December 31, 2022.

History

LiqTech International, Inc. was founded in 2000.