Cobalt Water Global, Inc. is a ClimateTech startup that was incorporated in 2020 with the mission to help decarbonize the water sector (water utilities, industries with water systems). It’s N2O solution, the N2ORisk DSS, is the most advanced in the world to help water utilities and industries account for, reduce and monitor their wastewater N2O process emission. Founder and CEO Jose Porro is the top N2O expert in practice and has over 15 years’ experience in general water utility carbon accounting. He originally founded the company as a consultancy in 2014 to apply his water, N2O, carbon accounting expert knowledge and new AI skills (from PhD studies) to offer water utility carbon accounting and mitigation services. As opportunities increased to scale positive climate impact, it became clear that the consultancy had to transition to a tech company and productize the knowledge and scale it as a subscription model.
At Cobalt Water Global, developing innovative, holistic, and sustainable water solutions is in our DNA. The desire to use our water expert knowledge to make a more sustainable water sector gave way to the Total Water approach.
As a concept, Total Water was coined by Jose Porro (Founder) and was inspired from Total Football (soccer), referring to the versatility of a football player for filling different roles in a match, as needed. Similarly, in Total Water, the same water can serve multiple roles to close water loops and make a city more sustainable. However, Total Water also implies a holistic approach; therefore, also has meaning on several levels:
Cobalt Water Global brings a diverse skill set with expertise in both drinking water and wastewater systems, for both large and small cities, such that the most critical urban water system problems can be solved. Furthermore, we are water experts who are experts in AI, providing unique value in developing water solutions and connecting the physical with the digital.
Whether it is treatment, transport, use, and reuse, Cobalt Water Global looks at the whole urban water cycle when developing solutions to predict and solve for how changes in one part of a system, such as water treatment or transport, may impact other parts of the system. This approach results in an overall best solution in terms of cost, water quality, service levels, efficiency, and positive environmental and climate impact.
Recognizing the pressures of today’s economic environment, we not only look at the job at hand, but also consider all benefits that can be gained, from cost to sustainability options, and design a holistic approach that fully maximizes investments.
Jose Porro is founder and CEO of Cobalt Water Global, an innovative ClimateTech company focused on
decarbonization of the water industry. Prior to founding the tech company in 2020 (company started as consultancy from 2014-2020), he had worked for over 20 years in the water industry as a consulting environmental engineer designing water (drinking water and wastewater) treatment facilities, modeling drinking water distribution system hydraulics, water quality, and energy consumption, and wastewater treatment process modeling across the US and internationally. Jose started water utility GHG accounting in 2008 working on projects with NYCDEP and NYSERDA, but eventually working as an international expert on GHG assessment, being recruited by the International Water Association (IWA) and the German Government to serve as the technical expert for the WaCCliM Project (2014-2019) helping to inventory and reduce GHG emissions from water utilities around the world. As part of the WaCCliM Project he also served as the technical lead for the development of the Energy and Carbon Assessment and Monitoring (ECAM) tool – the first web-based GHG assessment tool for the water industry. In 2010 Jose founded the IWA Task Group on GHG Modelling and has become the leading expert on wastewater N2O process emissions in practice. He has been recruited to participate in N2O applied research projects at the national level in the US, The Netherlands (for STOWA) and the UK (for UKWIR), and as one of the leading N2O experts in the world, was invited to give a keynote for the Melbourne Water Emission Impossible Workshop in Australia to talk about N2O. The N2ORisk DSS (AI/ML platform for WRRF N2O emissions accounting, reduction, and monitoring) is a product of his PhD research integrating AI and mathematical modelling for minimizing N2O emissions from WRRFs Jose was also co-editor and co-author of the recent IWA Publishing open access book, “Quantification and modeling of fugitive GHG emissions from urban water systems.” Jose is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of New York, holds BS (Wilkes University) and ME (Manhattan College) degrees in Environmental Engineering, and is finishing a PhD in Bioscience Engineering from Ghent University.
Yuge Qiu is a research engineer with a strong background in environmental sustainability, holding both a Ph.D. and an MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bath (UK). Her doctoral research focused on mitigating N₂O emissions from Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs), addressing one of the most potent greenhouse gases associated with wastewater treatment.
Her work explored the physical-chemical gas transfer dynamics within activated sludge aeration systems, using advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models that integrate hydrodynamic and biokinetic processes.
These models simulated N₂O production and stripping in full-scale, surface-aerated reactors. She also developed a novel regression meta-model to predict key gas transfer parameters—such as KLa and α-factor—using real-time sensor data and microbial indicators.
Yuge has authored four peer-reviewed publications in leading journals including Water Research and Chemical Engineering Journal. Her interdisciplinary expertise spans AI, machine learning, and mechanistic modeling, which she applies to complex environmental systems to drive scalable, data-driven solutions for climate-resilient infrastructure.
With a B.A. in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley and experience across both established tech companies and high-growth startups, Edison brings a rigorous yet user-centric approach to building digital products.
At Cobalt Water Global, he leads development efforts — architecting and implementing web and data platforms that scale with the company’s mission.
Edison’s strength lies in turning complex requirements into intuitive, performant applications, maintaining a balance between clean code, thoughtful UX, and real-world utility. At previous roles — spanning early-stage startups to larger ecosystems — he’s consistently prioritized clarity, efficiency, and user experience.
With a background in environmental engineering and water-&-wastewater treatment, Dhavissen brings deep technical expertise and a systems-level perspective to water solutions.
At Cobalt Water Global, he works to design, engineer, and implement scalable water and wastewater treatment approaches — combining scientific rigor, sustainability, and cutting-edge digitalization.
Dhavissen’s prior research and professional work include advanced membrane technologies, electrodialysis processes, and treatment of industrial and municipal wastewater streams — giving him a strong footing in both practical deployment and innovation.
Driven by a mission to deliver clean, reliable, and sustainable water solutions, Dhavissen strives to transform complex environmental challenges into real-world, impact-driven systems that serve communities responsibly.