Avsalt was founded as a Swedish company with the aim to build a commercial system for water desalination. Today the Avsalt headquarter is based in Lund, Sweden and the R&D is running at Delft, the Netherlands. The development of Avsalt’s desalination device is carried out at TU Delft in close association with the Department of Process and Energy.
Klas Bertilsson has lived and worked in Sweden, Italy, and the US, always focusing on the global marketplace. He is experienced in the fields of R&D, Special Projects, Product Management, Innovation Management at Alfa Laval and in the last six years as an Innovation Advisor. Klas is also a
co-inventor of 18 patents. A driven intrapreneur and entrepreneur with one foot in the startup world and one in the corporate world.
CSO
Niels received his PhD in 2012 from Utrecht University, with his thesis on electrostatics in ionic solution, followed by a postdoctoral position at Northwestern University, Chicago USA. In 2016, Niels was appointed Research fellow at Lund University, Sweden, where he studied the dynamics of polymers in solution with varying salinity. Niels has received several awards including Molecular Physics’ Longuet-Higgins Young author’s Prize for his publication “Blue energy: From ion adsorption and electrode charging in sea and river water”, and the Future Innovation Honorary Award from Lund University for a desalination device without pumps or valves.
Chairman & Co-founder
Dr. Mohamad Takwa has a PhD in biotechnology from the KTH University of Stockholm and has been involved in the establishment and early-stage of multiple successful innovation-based companies. Mohamad has contributed to more than 10 publications & 3 patents and has worked at multiple renowned European research institutions. Mohamad combines his passion for science and innovation to help cutting edge bio- & cleantech technologies from bench to market. He has co-founded several successful biotech and cleantech start-ups like: Bioextrax AB, Thyrolytics AB, Spermosens AB and Avsalt AB.
Board Member
Jakob Elander has a background as corporate legal counsel with specialization in contract law, M&A and international negotiations. He has experience in advising global actors in digitalization and profiting from data (including data analytics, machine learning and neural networks) especially within the heavy industrial applications. Jakob is among many other engagements, the owner and founder of Swiftcourt, a fintech company with worldwide transactions of over 5 billion euro per year.
Inventor & Founder
Niels received his PhD in 2012 from Utrecht University, with his thesis on electrostatics in ionic solution, followed by a postdoctoral position at Northwestern University, Chicago USA. In 2016, Niels was appointed Research fellow at Lund University, Sweden, where he studied the dynamics of polymers in solution with varying salinity. Niels has received several awards including Molecular Physics’ Longuet-Higgins Young author’s Prize for his publication “Blue energy: From ion adsorption and electrode charging in sea and river water”, and the Future Innovation Honorary Award from Lund University for a desalination device without pumps or valves.
