AQUAMINERALS BV

Their core work

AquaMinerals BV is a Dutch technology SME specializing in recovering minerals — primarily phosphorus — from water systems and returning them to productive use in agriculture and industry. Their core work sits at the intersection of water treatment and resource recovery: extracting valuable nutrients from wastewater, surface waters, sediments, and drainage systems rather than discarding them. In the NextGen project they contributed to demonstrating circular water infrastructure at scale, while in P-TRAP they brought applied expertise on phosphorus binding, iron interactions, and removal techniques in natural and managed water bodies. They are essentially a commercialization-oriented actor translating scientific phosphorus recovery methods into marketable products or services.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earliest H2020 involvement (NextGen, 2018), AquaMinerals focused on the systemic level — circular water infrastructure, large-scale demonstration, water reuse, and energy recovery — contributing to broad circular economy framing rather than a single material. By their second project (P-TRAP, 2019), the focus sharpened dramatically onto a single element: phosphorus. The keyword set shifted from systems and business models to chemistry and ecology — iron interactions, sediment dynamics, drainage systems, eutrophication. This suggests the company is narrowing its commercial niche toward phosphorus-as-product: recovering a critical agricultural input from water bodies where it causes environmental harm.

AquaMinerals is converging on phosphorus recovery as a core commercial offering — a strategically well-timed niche given EU critical raw materials policy and the agriculture sector's dependence on phosphorus imports.

How they like to work

AquaMinerals has never led an H2020 project — both participations were as partner or third party, meaning they join consortia as a specialist contributor rather than a project manager. Despite only two projects, they accumulated 49 unique partners across 14 countries, indicating they joined large, multi-actor research consortia rather than small focused teams. This profile suggests they bring a specific applied capability that consortium builders seek out, but they are unlikely to initiate or administer collaborative projects themselves.

AquaMinerals has built a surprisingly broad network for a two-project SME — 49 partners across 14 countries, reflecting the large consortium structures of NextGen and P-TRAP. Their reach is pan-European, though no geographic concentration within that breadth is visible from the available data.

What sets them apart

AquaMinerals occupies a rare commercial position: a private SME operating at the boundary between water treatment technology and agricultural input supply, with demonstrated involvement in both circular water infrastructure and scientifically rigorous phosphorus chemistry. Most actors in this space are either environmental consultancies or academic labs — AquaMinerals appears to be neither, instead focusing on turning recovered minerals into sellable products. For a consortium seeking to demonstrate commercial uptake of water-derived phosphorus, they bring the market-side credibility that research partners typically lack.

Highlights from their portfolio

• NextGen
  This is their only funded project (EUR 126,000) and placed them in a large Innovation Action consortium demonstrating circular water systems at scale — the kind of project that validates commercial readiness.
• P-TRAP
  As a third party in an MSCA-ITN training network, AquaMinerals contributed industry knowledge to the next generation of phosphorus researchers — an unusual role that signals recognition of their applied expertise by academia.