Recent Coverage

Turning Waste Into Power

Nine To Noon, Radio New Zealand

Cleaning up wastewater is a power-hungry business.

Adding up the cost of running all the pumps, waste driers and other electronics the average wastewater treatment plant burns through 1.5 kilowatt-hours for every kilogram of pollutants removed.

But a new technology is emerging that is turning a cost into an asset. It uses electrically active bacteria to eat waste and produce electricity as a by-product.

Under ideal conditions they are not only are able to run the plant, they can even feed extra electricity back into the grid.

Matt Silver, chief executive of US company Cambrian Innovation, says the potential for the technology is enormous.

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Cambrian Innovation Named 2016 START Program Winner

MassVentures today announced the 2016 START (SBIR Targeted Technologies) program winners with $3,000,000 in grant funding to be awarded to 17 cutting edge Massachusetts companies. The grants will allow the companies, which had previously received SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grants from federal agencies and departments including the Army, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, NASA and the Navy, to grow employment opportunities, promote manufacturing and commercialization, and stimulate innovation across the Commonwealth.

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A High Technology Solution to Wastewater Treatment

Cloverdale Reveille

There is a lot of symbiosis going on in Cloverdale. The city and a major employer have been working together for mutual benefit. Bear Republic’s brewery on the southern edge of town has made possible the drilling of a new city well and the enhancement of another, to better supply water to Cloverdale. In addition, the brewery has invested millions of dollars in a state-of-the-art, biological wastewater pretreatment plant.

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Bacteria Made to Turn Sewage into Clean Water – and Electricity

New Scientist

They’re miraculous in their own way, even if they don’t quite turn water into wine. Personal water treatment plants could soon be recycling our waste water and producing energy on the side.

Last month, Boston-based Cambrian Innovation began field tests of what’s known as a microbial fuel cell at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Maryland. Called BioVolt, in one day it can convert 2250 litres of sewage into enough clean water for at least 15 people. Not only that, it generates the electricity to power itself – plus a bit left over.

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Lagunitas Recycles Brewing Water

Beverage World

After considering several companies, Lagunitas turned to Cambrian Innovation, headquartered in Boston. Lagunitas liked that the company’s EcoVolt system was modular and scalable for future growth, Rixey says. Cambrian Innovation’s EcoVolt Reactor first came to market in late 2013. Bear Republic Brewing Co. and Lagunitas were the first to purchase the full-scale system. Two more brewers purchased the system in 2015. “Though we have focused primarily on craft breweries and wineries, the technology is a good fit for all food and beverage producers facing wastewater management challenges,” Matthew Silver, Founder and CEO of Cambrian Innovation, says.

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The Californian Craft Beer Brewed from Waste Water

The Guardian

Other craft breweries, such as Lagunitas Brewing Company and Bear Republic Brewing Co in Sonoma County, California, are using a new onsite wastewater treatment system housed in a shipping container.

The EcoVolt, developed by Boston-based startup Cambrian Innovation, is powered by electrically active bacteria that use anaerobic digestion to scrub the breweries’ wastewater of up to 90% of pollutants, according to Baji Gobburi, the company’s director of sales and marketing.

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