Atium

Clean water is a global challenge, but for Atium it means addressing a specific problem: toxic heavy metals continue to contaminate water systems worldwide, often in forms unseen.

Mercury is among the most hazardous of these metals. It accumulates in the food chain and poses devastating health risks, particularly for pregnant women and young children.

Because mercury can easily dissolve in other liquids, it is difficult to remove once it enters industrial wastewater, and existing removal methods are often inefficient or impractical at industrial scales. Atium was founded to address this gap.

The company has developed a patented, reusable electrochemical filter that removes dissolved mercury from liquid streams with high selectivity and efficiency. The system is designed for demanding industrial environments, including harsh acids in the chemical and mining sectors.

The technology originates from research at Chalmers University of Technology by Associate Professor Björn Wickman. In 2017, he partnered with entrepreneurship students Emma Hanaeus and Johan Björkquist to bring the technology innovation to market.

Atium’s first product launch targets emissions from the dental sector, which is the single largest source of mercury emissions to the public wastewater system in Sweden. It captures high amounts of mercury that would otherwise pass right through into our lakes and rivers.

The company is now expanding into international dental markets as well as scaling up acid treatment solutions for the mining industry. The objective is clear: to make high-efficiency removal of dissolved heavy metals a standard in industrial water treatment.