ECOVOLT: The World’s First Bioelectrically Enhanced Wastewater Treatment System

EcoVolt is a breakthrough wastewater treatment system that leverages electrically active microbes to create clean water and high quality renewable methane gas from wastewater. 

EcoVolt helps industrial beverage producers, particularly breweries, wineries, as well as food processing plants, generate energy from their wastewater streams, decreasing their carbon footprint & turning environmental liabilities into sources of revenue.

EcoVolt is ideal for wineries, breweries and other food and beverage producers that are:

• Developing greenfield sites
•  Expanding production
•  Seeking greater energy and water efficiency

Developed and scaled over the past five years with funding from the National Science Foundation, EcoVolt is an anaerobic treatment process enhanced by newly discovered electrically active microbes. To learn more about EcoVolt technology, click here.

Cambrian Technology

EcoVolt Technology

Cambrian’s flagship product, EcoVolt Bioelectric Wastewater Treatment, leverages a particular kind of bioelectricity in a process called “electromethanogenesis”. During this process, electrically active organisms convert carbon dioxide and electricity into methane fuel. Biologically coated electrodes in the reactor rapidly convert organic pollutants into electricity and subsequently convert electricity into methane fuel.

The methane produced by EcoVolt is both high quality (near pipeline quality) and renewable, and can be used in a combined heat and power system to provide sustainable energy to the facility.

The process of electromethanogenesis was discovered in 2008 and subsequently commercialized by Cambrian Innovation Inc. It has a wide range of applications, including wastewater treatment and nutrient management.

Bioelectrochemical Technology

Bioelectrochemical systems (BES), also known as microbial electrochemical technologies or microbial fuel cells, are a new technology based on the ability of certain microbes (termed exoelectrogens) to generate electricity via direct contact with electrodes. Traditional fuel cells and electrochemical systems use chemical catalysts that oxidize fuel (such as hydrogen) at anodes, and reduce oxygen at cathodes. A circuit between the anode and the cathode captures electrical energy released in the process.

BES technology can be thought of as fuel cells with a regenerative, living microbial catalyst. These microbes are capable of oxidizing and reducing a broad range of organic fuels including negative cost fuel such as wastewater. The technology works because the exoelectrogenic bacteria can respire through direct contact with the electrodes in our systems. BES have a range of advantages over current technologies depending on the exact domain of application.

Links: www.microbialfuelcell.org

The EcoVolt treatment system includes a “headworks” unit for wastewater conditioning and expandable EcoVolt modules for wastewater treatment and gas generation. A combined heat and power system can be included in the package to convert biogas into clean heat and electricity. The modular system is pre-fabricated for low-cost installation. Download an EcoVolt Brochure now.

Why Select EcoVolt?

Traditional treatment systems, like aerated ponds in the wine industry, consume energy and land, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year depending on the site. EcoVolt reverses this balance, tapping the natural energy already present in the wastewater, converting a power draw into a source of energy.

Clean Energy Generation

EcoVolt generates clean electricity and clean heat directly from industrial wastewater streams. High quality, renewable biogas created within the reactor is captured and used as a fuel in a combined heat and power system. A typical installation can create 30 – 200 kW of power.

Robust Wastewater Treatment

EcoVolt’s proprietary bioelectric process is robust and adaptable to a range of wastewater streams, and therefore particularly suited to varying BOD loads that are typically found in the food and beverage industry.

Prefabricated, Turn-key Installation

EcoVolt installations feature a prefabricated and modular design, reducing non-recurring engineering costs and greatly reducing install time and cost. The headworks can be designed to accommodate a high number of modular EcoVolt tanks, creating a low capex option to expand production at any point in the future.

Automated, Remote Operation

Leveraging, for the first time, a bioelectrochemical treatment process, EcoVolt systems automatically monitor the health of constituent microbial populations, enabling automated and/or remote control of the treatment process, and radically decreasing operator intensiveness.

Sustainable Water Management

Water is an increasingly precious resource and industries globally are moving towards the reuse of process water. The Cambrian EcoVolt system can form the basis for varying degrees of water reuse, whether for irrigation, tank washing or production. Contact the EcoVolt team for more information.

ORIGINAL: Cambrian Innovation