Liquisens: A sustainable solution for safe water in healthcare 

Legionella remains a serious risk in hospitals and care institutions, where vulnerable patients need extra protection from infection. Liquisens - a start-up co-founded by Steven De Schrijver - develops smart technology to monitor water quality in buildings and tackle Legionella proactively. Through the Healthcare Challenge, the company takes its next step: testing its solution in Living Labs, gathering insights from real-life use, and fine-tuning the technology further. 

What does Liquisens do - and how did you end up in the healthcare sector? 

Liquisens focuses on digital water quality monitoring. Through data analysis, we help clients take targeted action. We already work with industrial clients, but for hospitals and care homes water safety is also essential. Complex piping networks and fluctuating temperatures can create challenges for water management. 

Hospitals are legally required to prevent Legionella and invest significantly in safe water practices. Traditional solutions like filters and frequent flushing are labour-intensive and generate waste. Our UVC-LED disinfection system offers a sustainable alternative. It neutralises bacteria by altering their DNA and is energy-efficient, low-maintenance, and long-lasting. 

This technology is designed to enhance existing processes and make them more sustainable - enabling institutions to manage water more efficiently and sustainably. 

What made the Healthcare Challenge attractive for Liquisens? 

Hospitals don’t adopt new tech easily. These are complex environments with many stakeholders. The purchaser needs a sound business case, the hygienist needs guaranteed safety, and the installer wants something that’s easy to implement. 

The Healthcare Challenge gives us access to Living Labs, where we can test our solution in a real-world setting. It helps us understand what matters to hospitals and tailor our technology accordingly. It also creates space to bring all key players to the table - something that’s often hard to do otherwise. 

It’s also a learning opportunity in terms of making our business model truly circular. For instance: how do we deal with the end-of-life phase of our product? Do hospitals want a return system? Is that seen as a hassle? These kinds of insights are incredibly valuable. 

What are the main challenges for Liquisens? 

We need proof of concept. Hospitals often ask: where is this already being used? Who has tested it? That makes it tough to get the first pilot project off the ground. 

That’s where the Healthcare Challenge is so useful. Thanks to the programme’s screening process - with mentors like Mieke Pieters and Gert from Verhaert providing critical feedback - there’s a built-in level of quality assurance. That lowers the threshold for hospitals to get involved in a pilot. 

Without this structured approach, we’d much more quickly end up in a traditional sales conversation instead of a constructive test phase. The Healthcare Challenge helps us break through those initial barriers. 

What does Liquisens hope to achieve through the Healthcare Challenge? 

If we can launch Living Labs in several hospitals and receive valuable feedback, that’s a win for us. We want to test our assumptions, discover what we may have overlooked, and better understand how hospitals perceive circular solutions. 

Even if it turns out our solution doesn’t work as well as hoped, that’s still valuable knowledge. We’ll know why - and can adapt accordingly. Simply gaining insight into how hospitals think about circular products and how we can adjust our business model to fit that context is a huge step forward. 

Our goal is to learn not just how to improve our technology, but how to make our product both circular and workable in the complex healthcare ecosystem. 

What does long-term success look like for Liquisens? 

For me, it’s about making real impact with a small, agile team. In large organisations, innovation can be slow and politically complicated. If we can develop and deliver solutions that truly make a difference, and do it in an agile way - that’s incredibly rewarding. 

We want to bring technology to market that not only promotes sustainable water use, but also delivers cost savings and improved quality. The feedback we receive now is essential in helping us get there. 

What would you say to other start-ups considering the Circular kickstart accelerator? 

The Circular kickstart is the ideal opportunity to validate whether your business idea really adds value in the healthcare sector.