US majors target Israeli wastewater-to-electricity technology
15 Aug 2011
Caesarea, Israel – Energy Technology Ventures – a joint venture between GE, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips joint venture – is providing capital to commercialise Israeli company Emefcy Ltd’s technology which uses naturally occurring bacteria in an electrogenic bioreactor to treat wastewater.
The organic material in the waste produces power and treated water, transforming wastewater treatment from an energy-intensive, cost-intensive and carbon-intensive process, into an energy-generating and carbon-reducing process.
Rather than using conventional energy-intensive aerobic processes or methane-producing anaerobic digestion to treat wastewater, Emefcy harvests renewable energy directly from the wastewater and feeds it to the power grid, enabling the energy-positive wastewater treatment plant.
According to the company, the primary initial applications are for wastewater treatment in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, with total market potential of US$10 billion annually.
Energy Technology Ventures was joined in the funding round for Emefcy by Pond Venture Partners, Plan B Ventures and Israel Cleantech Ventures. Financial details were not disclosed.
“We will use Energy Technology Ventures’ investment to continue development of our technology into full-scale commercial implementation by the end of this year for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment,” said Emefcy’s CEO, Eytan Levy.
Energy Technology Ventures partner GE, is active in wastewater treatment and is expanding its technology focus on Israel, called the “Silicon Valley of water technology, said Emefcy.
The Microbial Fuel Cell Technology
Conventional fuel cells are electrochemical energy conversion devices that produce electricity from an external supply of fuel and an oxidant on the anode and cathode sides respectively. Fuel cells operate continuously as long as the reactants are supplied.
The fuel cell operates by catalytically separating component electrons and protons from the reactant fuel at the anode, and forcing the electrons to travel through a circuit, hence converting them to electrical power.
Electricity can also be produced directly from degradation of organic matter in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). Like any fuel cell, a MFC has an anode chamber and a cathode chamber. The anaerobic anode chamber is most commonly connected internally to the cathode chamber by an ion exchange membrane, and the circuit is completed by an external wire. Microbial fuel cells may use wastewater as a fuel, or more generally a dilute solution of a variety of organic materials in water.
