A new water treatment stock is heading for the National Stock Exchange with the launch of a $3 million initial public offering.

OneAtom 12 is working to commercialise an acid separation membrane for use in water treatment.

It will be one of only a handful of Australian listed water treatment stocks and the second listed stock that uses membrane technologies to treat water.

In February last year, OneAtom signed a commercialisation agreement with Monash University to exclusively use the patented intellectual property in the field for use of membranes to separate acid from waste water.

The company’s goal is to manufacture commercial polymer ion-exchange membranes in China to treat industrial water.

OneAtom will start with a plant in China before looking to market its technology in the US, Europe and Africa.

The IPO, priced at 8c per share, opens July 17 and closes July 31 ahead of an August 10 listing on the National Stock Exchange (NSX).

It’s the third recent IPO launched on the NSX — Australia’s second stock market with 83 listed companies — after meat seller Hao Xian Yang and beauty retailer D-Full Holding Group.

OneAtom’s plan to float comes close on the heels of news of an $8 million IPO being undertaken by wastewater treatment business Calix.

Sydney-based Calix, which was founded in 2005, has patented a technology called Calix Flash Calcination. The process involves grinding down minerals and flash-heating them at up to 800 degrees, then snap freezing the gases that emerge.

The business has developed a range of products from this process, including ACTI-Mag, an inorganic compound that can be added to sewers and water treatment facilities to strip odour and control hydrogen sulphide gas in sewer systems.

Water treatment stocks on the nose

Water treatment stocks have been a bit hit and miss with investors over the past year, with ASX-listed players like Fluence tumbling 55 per cent to 39.5c and De.Mem sliding 61 per cent to 14c.

Fluence has the largest global reach. It is a result of a merger between ASX-listed Emefcy and US company RWC last year.

It has a footprint in China, Africa, Latin America, Asia, the US, and Europe, where it sells portable desalination units and water treatment units.

De.mem (ASX:DEM) operates in Asia and Australia, and also has an eye closely focused on China.

It has an exclusive licence to a water purifying membrane from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and is partnering with Virtual Curtain China Limited (VCCL), whose tech is from CSIRO.

It owns an Australian, revenue making, business called Akwa-Worx, and has completed commercial trials of its nanofiltration membrane technology in Singapore and Vietnam.