Research
Academic collaborations
Field trials run with UC Davis (California) and NAIT (Alberta), alongside the growers and operators who host deployments in five countries.
RHST Industries Inc., founded by Thomas Gradek, has developed and patented WaterPearls — a nature-based water-retention technology that directly addresses freshwater scarcity and climate-resilient agriculture.
RHST Industries was founded with a single goal: providing a robust, sustainable and natural means to enhance crop productivity and increase water efficiency. The answer came from the engineering of a proprietary, organic diblock-polymer bead — what we now call the WaterPearl.
The water-retention system was patented in the United States in 2018 (U.S. 9,901,043, family filed since 2013), and WaterPearls now run in field deployments across five countries.
International recognition
NCPD Innovative Technology Excellence Prize 2025 (Saudi Arabia), Solar Impulse Efficient Solution label (2020 and 2023), VivaTech 2026 Top 400 Tech for Change, and a vineyard water solution featured by the Porto Protocol — with field trials and academic collaborations since 2016.
Engineer, researcher and founder of RHST Industries. Thomas led the WaterPearls development — from research on super-hydrophobic, organic diblock-polymer materials, through patent and field-trial validation, to trial projects in five countries.
His conviction: agriculture's water-vs-yield equation is not fixed — it can be re-engineered with the right material.
Research
Field trials run with UC Davis (California) and NAIT (Alberta), alongside the growers and operators who host deployments in five countries.
Verification
An ISO 14046-based Water Impact Report prepared by Oxia Initiative and financed by AquaAction — and VWBA 2.0 water-benefit accounting for WRIA™ projects.
Recognition
NCPD Innovative Technology Excellence Prize 2025, Solar Impulse Efficient Solution label (2020 and 2023), VivaTech 2026 Top 400 Tech for Change, and a vineyard case featured by the Porto Protocol.
Partners
RHST licenses its technology to strategic operating partners — the route from patented IP to deployments at basin scale. Partners & licensing →
Real field trials since 2016.
The surface and subsurface water-retention system enters the patent process.
Trial projects in China, South Africa, Jordan, the USA and Canada — with academic collaborations including UC Davis and NAIT.
U.S. patent 9,901,043 granted for the water-retention system — protection running to 2034.
WaterPearls earns the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution label from the Solar Impulse Foundation, assessed by independent experts.
WaterPearls receives the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution label, assessed by independent experts.
RHST WaterPearls wins Saudi Arabia's NCPD Innovative Technology Excellence Prize — selected from 35 countries for water-use efficiency in date-palm agriculture.
360 million WaterPearls in service. 360,000 ft² of agricultural area covered. 10 million litres of water saved.
Selected among VivaTech’s Top 400 “Tech for Change” — presenting the Water Replenishment Infrastructure model for AI data centers.
RHST Industries operates from the greater Montreal area — close to leading Canadian agricultural research and a short flight to our international trial sites. We work with growers, utilities and research institutions in five countries.
