14 DAY TRIAL // Boston, Massachusetts-based startup Cambrian Innovation announces the development of a new machine that can clean wastewater from breweries and wineries while producing electricity. The potential of wastewater for energy production has thus far not been explored due to high processing costs.
The new machine, called EcoVolt, is basically a bioreactor that fits inside a shipping container. Within the reactor are billions upon billions of microbes that gorge on dissolved carbon compounds in the wastewater, converting these chemicals into biogas.
This gas can then be burnt on-site for electricity production, or can be transported elsewhere for similar purposes. A brewery in Cloverdale, and a winery in Sonoma county, both in California, are already using EcoVolt installations to clean up the wastewater they produce, IEEE Spectrum reports.
Representatives from the Bear Republic Brewery, in Cloverdale, say that the biogas they obtain in this manner can be used to cover up to half of the factory's demands. They also add that nearly 10 percent of discarded wastewater can be reused after it has passed through EcoVolt.