Certifying and trading purified water transparently
Sector: Tertiary sector · Industry: Public infrastructure and utilities · Organisation: Botanical Water Technologies, Fujitsu · Maturity level: Production
Botanical Water Technologies and Fujitsu developed a blockchain platform to trace purified water seamlessly from producer to consumer. The system enables the reliable certification of water resources and connects industrial suppliers with buyers across a distributed network. This establishes a transparent marketplace for sustainably sourced water as a service.
Documentation status
- Project status: Production (as of 17 July 2023) — Fujitsu and Botanical Water Technologies operate the platform as a global marketplace for certified water.
- Evidence: Evidence medium
- Editorial review: pending
Description
Botanical Water Technologies, together with Fujitsu, has launched a platform that manages the trade of certified water via a tamper-proof data structure. In many industries, purified water is produced as a by-product, which until now could hardly be marketed regionally due to a lack of reliable proof. By using distributed ledgers, production volumes, purity levels and transport routes are recorded transparently, allowing customers to purchase verified quality directly.
The technical foundation of the project is a blockchain infrastructure provided by Fujitsu based on Hyperledger. The system records data points directly at the treatment plants of Botanical Water Technologies and writes them immutably into the ledger. This creates a verified data chain documenting every step from water extraction through treatment to delivery to industrial end customers. On this basis, the Botanical Water Exchange functions as a marketplace establishing the principle of Water-as-a-Service. Due to the decentralised structure, external auditors and customers can independently verify the origin and compliance with strict environmental standards at any time.
Perspectives
B2B — organisations perspective
For companies, the solution offers secure market access for the procurement of sustainably certified water. Buyers and sellers benefit from standardised quality certificates and transparent trading conditions without lengthy bilateral checks.
Employees perspective
Employees in production and environmental monitoring use a unified data basis for quality assurance. Manual control and reporting steps are replaced by automated protocols, noticeably simplifying daily approval processes.
Benefits
General
- Complete and tamper-proof documentation of the entire water value chain
- Simplified certification and fulfilment of regulatory environmental requirements
- Increased trust through manufacturer-independent verifiable ledger data
B2B — organisations
- Efficient trade processing via a central marketplace for certified water
- Reliable evidence for corporate sustainability and ESG reporting
Employees
- Elimination of time-consuming manual documentation processes during audits
- Transparent real-time insight into quality parameters
Challenges
General
- Need for uniform global standards for the certification of treated water
- Effort required to integrate different data capture and sensor systems at the sites
B2B — organisations
- Acquisition of a sufficient number of trading and industrial partners to ensure liquidity
Employees
- Training requirements for using the platform's digital auditing tools
Technology foundation
The solution is based on an enterprise blockchain platform from Fujitsu using Hyperledger technology. The distributed ledger guarantees immutable logging of volume data, quality characteristics and proof of origin for every recorded drop of water. Thanks to the decentralised data structure, all participating trading partners can auditably and tamper-proof view the lifecycle of the treated water.
Implementation examples
Botanical Water Exchange (BWX)
Treated water from industrial processes could not previously be marketed economically to third-party buyers due to a lack of transparent evidence.
Botanical Water Technologies developed a trading platform with Fujitsu that certifies and sells treated water seamlessly via a blockchain.
Botanical Water Technologies, together with technology partner Fujitsu, launched the Botanical Water Exchange to make plant-derived and treated water tradable as a valuable resource. The platform uses Hyperledger technology to securely record every production step, quality data, and the whereabouts of water quantities in a tamper-proof manner. This allows industrial suppliers to certify their treated water and reliably provide it to commercial buyers within a Water-as-a-Service model.
Elimination of trust barriers regarding water quality and origin as well as avoidance of non-transparent supply chains.
Tags
Water management, Traceability, Sustainability, Hyperledger, Certification, Trading platform