Colloide Wins Innovation Award at the Mid Ulster Business Awards 2025
Colloide has been named winner of the Innovation Award at the Mid Ulster Business Awards 2025, held at the Royal Hotel in Cookstown.
Hosted by the Mid Ulster Mail and now in its 14th year, the awards recognise the outstanding achievements of local enterprises.
The Innovation Award, sponsored by McGeary Engineering, celebrates businesses that push boundaries through originality, creativity, and measurable impact.
Colloide stood out for its pioneering engineering solutions across the water, energy, and environmental sectors; from the DUO Wave-Powered Desalination System, to the standardisation of chemical dosing systems for UK utilities, the development of advanced digestate treatment technology that turns waste into valuable resources and pioneering renewable heat networks. These projects embody Colloide’s belief that engineering must go beyond solving problems to create a brighter tomorrow for people and the planet. Colloide’s collaborative approach, working with partners such as Queen’s University Belfast, Invest NI, and the Department for the Economy, also demonstrates the strength of local innovation on a global stage.
“Innovation is at the heart of what Colloide does. This award is a reflection of the team’s dedication to finding smarter, more sustainable ways to solve complex engineering challenges. It’s an honour to be recognised among such a strong field of local businesses, and we share this achievement with our colleagues, partners, and clients.” – Joanne Irwin, Financial Director
The evening was hosted by local broadcaster Adrian Logan, with Ian Henry of Henry Brothers, headline sponsor, presenting the awards. Other category sponsors included P McVey, Innotech, Cavanagh Kelly, Mid Ulster District Council, PA Duffy, McNicholl Caravans, and Specialist Group.
Colloide looks forward to continuing its mission of engineering a brighter tomorrow and to celebrating this win with its team who help drive change and power success.
Colloide's Innovative Solutions
Viking Energy Network Jarrow
Colloide acted as Principal Contractor for South Tyneside Council. Collectively both parties working towards a shared aim of achieving carbon neutral targets.
This innovative network harnesses low-grade heat from the river, utilising a river source heat pump, combined with a solar farm and a backup combined heat and power (CHP) system. By efficiently extracting and converting heat into usable energy, this groundbreaking district heating system supplies hot water to a range of buildings, including high-rise flats, schools, and sheltered housing.
DUO Wave-Powered Desalination System
Addressing global water purification in remote coastal areas and the aquacultural sector requires bold, innovative solutions. Colloide, in partnership with Sea Potential, is on a path to redefining sustainable water treatment through the development of the DUO Wave-Powered Desalination System (DUO DS). Unlike traditional desalination methods that consume significant amounts of electrical energy, the DUO system taps directly into ocean wave energy, converting wave motion into hydraulic pressure to power seawater through a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, resulting in fresh, potable water.
Streamlined Procurement, Standardisation, and Efficient Delivery of Chemical Dosing Solutions
Colloide helps clients streamline procurement, reduce costs, and achieve fast deployment of chemical dosing systems.
Standardisation reduces waste, and pre-testing dosing rigs off-site ensures that resources are used efficiently. Furthermore, by mitigating supply chain risks through advanced procurement strategies, Colloide is helping water companies build more resilient infrastructure that can withstand future challenges.
Advanced Digestate Treatment Technology
Colloide have developed a digestate treatment system that not only targets effective management of ammonia emissions but by recovering valuable resources also enables a zero-waste solution. The recovered resources are products of agricultural value and present an opportunity to achieve a zero pollution digestate management system.
The system has demonstrated ammonia removal of up to 95% from unseparated digestate, producing fertiliser-grade nutrients that replace synthetic alternatives.
