Wanted: innovative solutions for circular water use in printing ink production

Increasing circularity is one of the key pillars of Canon's sustainability vision. Through innovative production, we want to ensure that waste becomes a thing of the past and our products and materials can be used longer. A crucial challenge is minimizing water consumption and purifying process water in our state-of-the-art ink production facility in Venlo.

Are you the innovator who helps Canon reduce and/or make water use more circular in ink production? Get a chance at a pilot project with €50,000 budget, scaling opportunities upon success, and contribute to clean water for future generations!

The challenge

At our advanced production facility in Venlo, Canon develops and produces complex, water-based polymer inks for large printing systems sold worldwide. We are a market leader in printing technology with Kyosei as our overarching corporate philosophy - "living and working together for the common good." This means we continuously innovate to realize our sustainability ambitions.

Water plays a central role in our ink production: it's in the end product, used in the production process, and is not immediately reusable. This creates various challenges for our circular ambitions, such as:

• Water consumption: large amounts of clean water are needed for ink production.
• Water pollution: process water becomes contaminated and must be cleaned.
• Regional impact: we want no negative impact on regional water management.

Canon is already actively taking the necessary steps toward circular water use. We are currently investing in advanced wastewater treatment that can treat ink process water to a level where the regular water treatment can purify it. Additionally, we have already implemented extensive water quality monitoring, giving us exact insight into the composition and quality of our water streams at various points in the process.

But our goal is even more ambitious: we want to use as little clean water as possible and return as much clean water as possible to our environment, maximize reuse of process water within our production cycle, and realize our production without negative consequences for local water management.

This challenge doesn't just affect Canon, but all industries with water-intensive production processes. A breakthrough in circular water use opens doors to markets in chemistry, pharmaceuticals, food industry, and many other sectors.

Where are we looking for?

We seek innovative solutions that make our water use more sustainable. The ultimate goal is a completely closed water system with maximum reuse of process water within the production cycle. We realize this is an ambitious end goal, so we are also very interested in partial solutions that bring us step-by-step closer to this goal. Any innovation that contributes to making our water use more sustainable is valuable.

An important requirement is that solutions must be practically implementable in our existing production facility. We see opportunities in various directions but are also open to creative approaches we haven't yet considered.

Possible solution directions:

• Advanced water purification techniques: systems that purify contaminated process water on-site for reuse by Canon.
• Water minimization in production: processes that achieve the same result with less water consumption.
• Biological water purification: natural systems that purify process water and return clean water to the environment.
• Smart water recycling: technologies that optimally utilize different qualities of process water.

Where are we not looking for?

• Standard water purification solutions without innovative character.
• Innovative monitoring systems for water quality and consumption - we are already equipped with these.
• Concepts that are not scalable to industrial production volume.
• General sustainability advice without concrete technical breakthrough.

What we offer

• Chance at a contract of up to €50,000 to realize and test a prototype/pilot.
• Chance at a follow-up contract, scaling, or sustainable collaboration with a successful pilot.
• Test environment in our advanced production facility in Venlo.
• A unique opportunity to collaborate with a world leader. Canon's international network offers enormous growth possibilities.
• Expertise and guidance through collaboration with Canon's R&D teams and sustainability experts.

Assessment criteria

• Water impact: how much does the solution contribute to circular water use and purification?
• Technical feasibility: is the solution implementable in our existing Venlo facility?
• Scalability: can the solution be broadly applied in industrial production environments?
• Innovation level: how innovative is the solution compared to existing water technologies?

Your submission

The submission must contain the following components:

1. Description of the solution:
   Provide the most concrete description possible of your solution. 
2. Description of the pilot:
   Provide a brief description of what is needed to create a prototype and/or set up a pilot and what you need from us. Address the support needs, required access/materials/data, and financial proposal for the pilot and, if successful, for the long term.
3. Team description:
   Provide a brief description of the company and team that will realize the pilot.

The submission must meet the following requirements:

• In Dutch or English
• Maximum 6 pages / 18 slides
• In the form of a presentation, slide deck, or text documentUploaded as PDF file (landscape or portrait A4 format, maximum 30MB)
• (optional) Videos, example websites, etc. may be added as links

Important: Intellectual Property

Your pitch will be reviewed by Canon industry professionals. Keep IP-sensitive technical details out of your initial submission to ensure easy participation. With mutual interest, legal agreements such as NDAs and confidentiality agreements will be made to protect your and our innovations.

Timeline

• Thursday, December 18, 2025, at 12:00 CET: challenge launch
• Wednesday, February 4, 2026, from 11:00 to 12:00 CET: online Q&A session (not mandatory) - sign up via the button above
• Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at 17:00 CET: challenge deadline
• By Friday, March 27, 2026: selection announcement[Date]: live pitches / conversations with selected submissions
• Q3 2026: Pilot start

About Canon

Canon is a global technology leader with more than 180,000 employees in over 200 countries and regions. Venlo houses one of Canon's advanced production facilities for the development and production of inks for professional printing systems. Canon operates according to the Kyosei philosophy: "living and working together for the common good." This philosophy forms the basis for all activities and drives the ambition to contribute to a sustainable society through innovation, where economic growth goes hand in hand with ecological and social responsibility.