Israeli start-up harnesses bacteria to purify wastewater and generate electricity.
By EHUD ZION WALDOKSwater224-88(photo credit: )
Sometimes the biggest ideas can come from the smallest organisms. That, at least, is what Eytan Levy and Ronen Shechter are banking on with their newest joint venture, Emefcy. The founders of the Aqwise industrial wastewater treatment company have started a new company based on bacteria.
This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill bacteria, though. It can both purify wastewater and generate electricity, without producing carbon dioxide. Levy told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday that he believed Emefcy was the most advanced company in the world working with microbial fuel cells (MFCs).
While the product is still in the research and development phase, he said they hoped to do pilot projects in 2009 and set up a beta site in 2010.
"We are already in advanced negotiations with companies both here and abroad interested in signing letters of intent," Levy told the Post.
The amounts of electricity in question are not inconsequential, either, Levy said.
"Each kilogram of organic load being treated generates 1 kilowatt-hour (kwHr) of electricity. For example, take a food processing plant with the following characteristics: A wastewater flow of 100 cubic meters per hour and an organic contamination concentration of 10 kg organic material per cubic meter of wastewater. Therefore, the power output in this case would be 1 Megawatt of electricity (sufficient to continuously provide electricity to 800 households)," he said.
In some ways, Levy and Shechter's tale is a quintessential Israeli hi-tech success story.
"Ronen and I met 20 years ago at the Technion [Israel Institute of Technology], where we both studied chemical engineering. Ronen was more of a research type and I was more into marketing and management," Levy said.
Pooling their skills, they founded Aqwise in 2000, which is based on technology that Shechter had previously developed. They bought the rights to that technology and turned it into a profitable company in six years.
"Aqwise is now profitable, global and established. So [in 2007] we started looking for the next big thing.
"We read initial studies on microbial fuel cells and understood this was what we were looking for," Levy recalled.
Emefcy is pioneering a technology that differs from conventional waste treatments in use elsewhere and, Levy claimed, is much more cost efficient. A lot of organic fuel actually exists in waste water but instead of using it "we use a lot of power to get rid of it," he pointed out.
No longer. With MFCs, the bacteria gobble up the organic fuel and waste, clean up the water and then use the fuel to produce electricity.
"The conventional method is through something called 'activated sludge.' Bacteria are put in a pool called an aeration basin. You give the bacteria air with a compressor, and when they breathe they eat the organic contamination," he explained.
Their new method, however, is slightly different.
"You divide the basin into coupled zones. There is an anode and a cathode like the two sides of a battery. One side is the sewage, the other is air. The zone is connected with an electrical wire. The bacteria want to send electrons into the air but they can't do so directly. We force it through the wire and generate a current," Levy explained.
So instead of using large amounts of electricity to purify or treat wastewater, MFCs generate electricity which can either be used to power the process or even be sold back to the grid.
Emefcy is a true cleantech company with multiple environmental benefits, Levy said.
First of all, there are the benefits of purifying or treating waste water. Second, there is the electricity generation. Moreover, he said, the electricity is carbon-free, which means it can be capitalized on in the carbon credits market. Finally, the process reduces another byproduct of purification - sludge.
"Sludge is a side product of purification which must be disposed of and sludge disposal is expensive. You have to treat it and dry it before you can bury it [at a landfill] - which is very expensive. However, our process yields just 10 percent of the sludge of conventional treatment processes," according to Levy.
Emefcy will utilize the patented technology of Pennsylvania State University Prof. Bruce Logan, Levy said, who sits on their advisory board. They will be getting the license for all of his patents for the last five years, he said. A check with the World Intellectual Property Organization's online search engine turned up three MFC-related patents registered to Logan.
What Levy and Shechter bring, in addition to experience, is a delivery mechanism known as biofilm. Basically, Levy explained, biofilm is a glue to which the bacteria adhere. Its advantage is that it is very stable and so can sustain wastewater hazards such as load variation and toxic shocks.
"We are familiar with biofilms, because Aqwise is based on biofilm but in a different application," he said.
Levy believes Emefcy has the potential to become a multi-billion dollar international corporation.
"The potential market is huge - industrial wastewater. What's more, the wastewaters are generally salinated, which poses a problem for other technologies. Here, however, the salt actually helps the bioelectrical chemical process and acts as a catalyst," he said.
Levy and Shechter own 72.5% of the company, Israel Cleantech Ventures 25%, and SAB and ESOP Reserve 2.5%.
As veteran entrepreneurs, Levy is confident they have both the experience and contacts to make their cost effective technology a success.
"[Through Aqwise] we have very good contacts with water conglomerates all over the world," he said.
Asked whether he and Shechter would move on again if Emefcy became profitable, Levy wasn't so sure.
"We are innovators who like to innovate. As long as we can continue to grow and be challenged, we'd like to," he said.
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