Chilean nanobubble-based services company arrives in the U.S. market

At the end of 2022, the company specialized in innovative and sustainable solutions through nanobubble technology, Kran, managed to establish itself in Ecuador where they already have equipment in operation specifically for the shrimp industry, where there are various opportunities from water quality, oxygenation and waste treatment.

“We are currently working with a local partner called ASTAP, with a focus on engineering solutions in sanitation, energy and hydrocarbons. This second half of the year we started with the opening of an office in San Francisco, California (United States), where we are mainly developing two lines of business. The first is agricultural, related to the impact on water efficiency and quality, mainly for the irrigation of green areas, parks and productive fields. And a second line dedicated to hygiene projects in processing plants. This application emerged and is currently operating in primary and secondary plants of the salmon farming industry in Chile,” says Kran’s commercial director, Martín Castro.

Likewise, they expect to launch a series of specific projects in Latin America in the short term, in order to close the year with a regional expansion model with a focus on LATAM and a second area with a focus on North America (Mexico and the United States). USA).

“Although we are in an initial stage of internationalization, we are optimistic given that the key impetus comes from clients or prospects who have called us to develop projects together. This is how today we are planning, for example, the installation of nanobubble systems for the brewing industry with AB InBev, the largest brewery in the world,” adds Martín Castro.

Internationalization

In the U.S. The U.S. is focused on agro and industrial projects (hygiene, water treatment). After being selected for the 100+ acceleration program led by Coca Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, and Ab InBev, they were given the challenge of piloting, validating, and scaling with the latter company.

“As a result of that validation, we are starting the scaling process for LATAM today. As a company, our differentiating value lies in evaluating from the science of the nanobubble whether we are capable of solving a problem. That is why we are constantly studying, reviewing new related literature that can give us ideas to develop applications. We are convinced that Ab InBev’s impulse arises from this search or versatility to integrate nanobubble systems to the different possibilities that exist in the beer industry, where a key KPI is water consumption,” he adds.

Beer and beverages are now products of mass consumption at a global level. While this may seem obvious, it is a relevant difference when looking for some point of comparison with the salmon farming industry.

“Under that logic, it’s feasible to produce those products basically all over the world. However, it is a market where around 50% of production is concentrated in two companies, one of them, Ab InBev, with whom we are already working. If we analyze by volume of water, obviously beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) depend 100% on this liquid, a global challenge that has them today pressing the rate below 2.5 liters of water for each liter of beer. Considering that more than 1,860 billion hectolitres of beer are produced globally, the production rate ranges from 2.5 to 6 litres. In short, a lot of litres of water and, therefore, a tremendous opportunity for us in terms of reducing this conversion rate. In addition, we must understand that not only water is consumed for production, but that a large part of that consumption is in cleaning or washing processes, and that is where we already have technical validations,” says the Kran representative.

He adds that, in short, they are very different industries but similar in terms of how they are integrated into their processes. Both the brewing industry and salmon farming consider the liquid resource to be critical in savings, scarcity or direct impact on their product, and their packaged solutions reflect significant benefits in those cross-cutting parameters.

Increasing the shelf life of flake ice for salmon farming

However, in the search for delivering a nanobubble system that is easy to integrate into the plants and under the lowest load or extra cost for the producer, they analyze the problem on a case-by-case basis.

“There are producers with high punishment due to the raw material that does not reach its destination in the desired quality (gall degradation, odor and texture among other degradation factors). There is also a bias on the part of the receiving customer when observing ice that is liquid (even though the product may not be spoiled). This, considering the percentage of exportable fresh product, is quantifiable. In short, together with the producer, we carry out validations (and evaluation of return on investment), considering the percentage of fresh produce exported and the average percentage of punished product rejected. Taking this as a baseline, it is then compared to a similar period using nanobubbles,” explains Martín Castro.

He emphasizes that the positive thing about this is that they can use a simple system that not only extends the shelf life of the flake ice (contributing to the prolonged maintenance of the cold chain), but also microbiological improvements to the plant itself. This, in turn, can be validated by laboratory or quality, thus generating other secondary benefits such as savings in water and chemicals.

“Finally, for this integration, we work with a “smart sales” model in which, at a certain time, we accompany the producer in the integration process, from modeling and design to implementation and monitoring. This model has given us results since we accompany it with online monitoring, periodic visits and maintenance, allowing us to reach the ideal configuration, which can later be carried out directly by the producer,” he concludes.