The SaniWASE

WASE has developed the SaniWASE, an accelerated wastewater treatment system, that enables efficient decentralised waste processing. SaniWASE uses developing Electro-Methanogenic Systems (EMS) which accelerate wastewater treatment with minimal energy use, recovering energy and nutrients in the form of biomethane and fertilisers. 

Our technology can help underserved communities, food and drinks manufacturers, agricultural industries and sanitation providers solve a currently unsustainable and uneconomical wastewater treatment model that causes 80% of all wastewater to be discharged to the environment untreated.

SaniWASE can offer people access to onsite, modular wastewater treatment and secure, affordable and sustainable energy. If used globally it could change the lives of the 4.5 billion people that are affected by inadequate wastewater treatment facilities. We can change wastewater treatment from an economically draining process to one that adds value to our economy and environment.

Globally, 80% of wastewater is discharged into our environment untreated. The WHO/UNICEF’s latest figures suggest that 4.2 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services, causing diseases to spread. These conditions cost $216 billion every year.

In addition to this as mentioned in the challenge description, 30% of food is either lost or wasted. Underserved communities commonly rely on biomass for cooking. Biomass causes indoor air pollution causing more deaths annually than malaria as well as rapid deforestation, especially in densely populated areas like refugee camps. In Bidibidi refugee camp, wood resources will be exhausted within 2 years and the Rwandan government has had to ban firewood usage, leaving the population desperately seeking alternatives.

With communities expanding we need modern solutions that can treat growing wastewater streams in a circular method making a drain a positive.

WASE is developing novel electro-methanogenic systems (EMS) which accelerate wastewater treatment (WWT). EMS is the core technology of our product the SaniWASE, which offers decentralised WWT. We provide a circular approach, using wastewater as a resource to generate biogas, produce fertilisers and recover water for reuse. Our technology integrates into rural and urban communities as well as industrial applications, creating opportunities for onsite waste management and energy generation. Our modular technology treats a variety of different wastewater streams.

SaniWASE provides value in multiple ways:

• SaniWASE accelerates treatment. Treating wastewater 10 times faster than anaerobic digestion, the primary method of recovering energy from wastewater. The faster treatment reduces facility footprint.
• SaniWASE accelerates energy production. Our modules generate high-energy biogas with a methane content up to 80-90%, 30-40% higher than AD. The increase in methane and gas quantity results in 70% more energy than AD. The treatment process removes contaminants in wastewater, where we can produce a nutrient-rich liquid that can be used as an organic fertiliser for irrigation and reforestation, increasing crop yields by 20%. The treated water can also be discharged into the environment recharging groundwater.

The water crisis is the most significant global threat due to the potential impact it has on society, along with energy price shocks and biodiversity loss. 2.3 billion people do not have adequate sanitation. 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity. 2.7 billion people do not have access to clean cooking facilities.

Our vision is world where wastewater is never wasted becoming the everyday source of water (for irrigation or other non-potable use), energy and fertilisers. The main need for wastewater treatment is within lower income communities where 92% is discharged into the environment untreated. To reach our vision we know that there are steppingstones. In the projects that we’ve planned to serve the humanitarian sector we will be installing systems in multiple facilities across Dadaab and Kakuma refugee settlements in Kenya serving 1000 people.

We have visited these sites to open conversations with locals, explaining our solution to understand whether it is something that is wanted. In a visit to Bahar, India, we worked with a local NGO (SHRI) and learnt about the local farmers’ concerns regarding pollution from poor waste management and how it affects them both economically and socially. They were extremely interested in the SaniWASE’s potential.   

At the core of our technology is the concept that we unlock the power of waste. In the challenge overview it states that 30% of food is lost or wasted, our systems can be used to recover the potential of that waste. By feeding our systems with biological waste, our users can gain access to clean water for irrigation, renewable energy in the form of methane rich biogas and organic fertiliser. Through these products, users can sustainably achieve increased crop yields while reducing their reliance on environmentally damaging energy sources such as wood and fossil fuels.

The main energy recovery technology that challenges our solution is anaerobic digestion (AD). However, the SaniWASE can be considered as a direct upgrade to AD, it can treat waste 10 times faster while generating a high-energy biogas with a methane content up to 80%, 20-30% higher than Anaerobic digestion. SaniWASE also increases the volume of biogas. The increased methane and gas quantity results in 70% more energy than anaerobic digestion.

A further benefit of SaniWASE is organic waste (COD) removal efficiencies of 95%+, compared to AD which is up to 76%. Our EMS system can operate and produce energy at temperatures from 10-38°C with AD requiring temperatures between 38 to 57°C increasing the thermal energy input. Our technology can be integrated into AD systems to stabilise the reactions within the chamber, creating a consistent production of biogas that has an 80+% methane concentration which is ~20% higher than current commercial AD systems.

Various companies produce AD systems, two leading suppliers include: SEaB and Sistema Biobolsa. We are working with Sistema Biobolsa’s partners to integrate our technology into their systems to upgrade the performance. Typical wastewater treatment uses aeration which requires significant amount of energy and is used globally by utilities. We are planning a pilot with Scottish Water to trial SaniWASE to reduce energy demands for both their rural communities and centralised treatment plants.

The core of SaniWASE is based on the emerging science of Bioelectrochemical Systems.

We’ve incorporated our proprietary electromethanogenic reactor (EMR) technology into a modular secondary stage wastewater treatment system for distributed deployment. 

Waste entering our system naturally contains a broad spectrum of bacterial types.  In addition to those involved in conventional anaerobic digestion, there are two families of interest: exoelectrogens and methanogens.  The exoelectrogens digest organic material by an oxidation reaction which strips electrons off hydrogen atoms, turning them into H+ ions.  To do so, they need a sink for surplus electrons and are therefore attracted to the electron-accepting anode. The anode is engineered to provide a hospitable physical and electrical environment for the bacteria, and soon becomes coated with a biofilm.

The H+ ions released at the anode are attracted to the negative charge on the cathode.  When they reach the cathode, they accept an electron from it and turn back into atomic hydrogen.  Methanogens metabolise CO2 using hydrogen atoms, which combine with the carbon to generate methane.  They are attracted to the cathode because it provides a steady supply of hydrogen atoms.  As with the anode, the cathode is engineered to provide an environment tailored to methanogenic bacteria and it too soon becomes coated with a biofilm.

The anode and the cathode maintain their charges by the external voltage applied across them by the solar PV panel. The biogas produced by a SaniWASE module typically contains up to 70x the amount of solar energy input to the system.

The emerging science of Bio-Electrochemical Systems (BES) combines various interdisciplinary areas of research, including electrochemistry, microbiology, and engineering, to open new areas of microbial electrochemistry. There have been many studies that prove the technology, the following are some examples:

• On the Edge of Research and Technological Application: A Critical Review of Electromethanogenesis:
  • https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/18/4/874
• Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) for sustainable energy production and product recovery from organic wastes and industrial wastewaters:
  • https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2012/ra/c1ra00839k#!divAbstract
• Microbial electrolysis cells: An emerging technology for wastewater treatment and energy recovery. From laboratory to pilot plant and beyond:
  • https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032115012812

Additionally, there are other two other companies that are using variants of bioelectrochemical systems for waste treatment, they are H2AD and Cambrian Innovations. They have seen successes, however, they utilise different business models and target different markets.

Our mission is to accelerate access to wastewater and organic waste treatment and provide sustainable energy to communities. To reach our ambition, we use a unique Theory of Change that is built upon two integrated pillars:  

• At the heart of any sustainable strategy are the people interacting with it. Our first pillar builds on empowering communities to an environment and ecosystem that self-promotes the benefits of sustainable waste management.   
• Developing sustainable communities are the second pillar, where we aim to ensure that the communities have the essential infrastructure around waste management, wastewater treatment and energy access to build upon.

The activites that we undertake to uphld these pillars are as follows:

• Empowered communities  
  • Our activities: 
    • Building partnerships with local organisations for the installation and maintenance of wastewater treatment  
    • Building market awareness through education 
    • Job creation and training  
    • Remote monitoring and control for real time analytics on the communities direct impact 
• Creating sustainable communities  
  • Our Activities 
    • Building decentralised waste treatment infrastructure 
    • Circular resource management  
    • Education around waste to resource management   

A market analysis in collaboration with the Carbon Trust and Energy for Impact identified the most promising markets in Kenya to be institutional, municipal and commercial markets (food processing). These sectors will benefit most from our USPs of faster treatment, higher energy production, increased system stability and reduced downtime. A UK Aid funded energy access assessment carried out by LTS International (May-2020) found Kenya to be the second-highest enabling environment for bio-energy solutions. With Kenya topping the ranking for food processing.

Currently, our technology does not serve any people.

However, our mission is to accelerate wastewater treatment making it a future resource of water, energy, and fertilisers globally.

To reach our mission we’ve set ourselves an ambitious goal to treat 2.3 billion litres of waste by 2030, representing the 2.3 billion people that lack adequate sanitation and the UN SDG 2030 targets.

So far, we have treated over 5000L with our small pilots and next year we will have treated 96,000L for reuse. In 5 years, time we will be a 3rd of our way to reaching our target having treated 766 Million litres of wastewater, representing ~770 million people.

So far, we have started a partnership with a leading humanitarian organisation to bring our systems to those in need. With them we have developed a three-phase market/technology validation strategy. The first stage, a funded large-scale pilot, was completed last year and proved the capabilities of our technology.

The second stage involves the design and building of a system to treat the waste of 100 people in a Kenyan refugee camp. Combining this with the other projects that we have planned over the next year, we predict that our solution will be serving around 300 people in one year.

If this proves successful, then our partner wants our system to be integrated into their school feeding programme which serves 16.4 million children. We will initially launch at 83 schools across Benin, so that we can serve 83,000 children.

Over the next year we have multiple pilots planned, including a large-scale system that will treat the waste of 100 people in a Kenyan refugee camp with the a leading humanitarian organisation.

If this proves successful, then our partner wants our system to be integrated into their school feeding programme which serves 16.4 million children. We will initially launch at 83 schools across Benin, so that we can serve 83,000 children. At the end of 2020 we will make our first sale.  

These plans are part of our three-phase scale up strategy. Phase 1 is the UK market targeting food and drinks manufacturers requiring onsite treatment due to rising wastewater charges and increasing energy demands. We are meeting customers at trade shows and through our network.

Phase 2 is the humanitarian sector to provide onsite wastewater treatment for refugee and underserved communities. Due to higher barriers to entry we need grant funding to establish a sustainable business model. As well as our Kenya project, we’re also working with NGOs such as Peace Winds Japan, Oxfam and are part of the 2020 Toilet Board Accelerator.

Phase 3 is scaling up our development work in Sub-Sharan Africa and South East Asia working with organisations such as TATA who we’re in talks with to scale up our manufacturing and delivery capability. Engagement with customers has led to 6 LOI for 10,000 units over 5 years.

The main barriers to our goals over the next five years revolve around finances and opportunities to further validate our technology.

Until very recently WASE was funded completely by grants and competitions, however after closing our seed investment round we now have runway to grow the company to the point where we will be ready for mass manufacture. However, the funds for expanding our team to be ready for mass manufacture will depend on our closing of a series A round. Our ability to attract investors and customers hinges on our further validation of our technology. To accomplish this, we need to complete our planned projects/pilots before we get to the end of our runway. This causes delays to be very impactful, something that COVID-19 has really challenged us with.

We are on track to meet our deadlines and beyond these short-term barriers the factors that can limit our growth over the next 5 years manifest in our ability to find the right talent to continue to innovate our product and our company.

We will overcome our financial barriers by beginning our search for Series A investors early, the Solve community could be extremely helpful with this. Additionally, we have plans to make our first sale by then end of 2020, if this sale is successful then the ramifications could reduce our dependency on equity-based financing.

To overcome the barriers surrounding the validation of our technology, we are constantly searching for new pilot potentials. We are currently in talks with an organic farm to look at innovating how they deal with their waste, while also allowing us to gather pivotal data. The Solve community could provide us with the connections to find further potential pilots/partners.

There are currently one intern and eight full-time staff working on our solution team.

WASE has three founding members, together they lead an interdisciplinary, technical and business-minded team.

Thomas Fudge (CEO) has been in the sector for four years leading the commercial development of WASE. His background in sustainable design and business development, focusing on wastewater treatment and energy production with previous experience bringing new products to market. Thomas carried out a PhD in the technical development and economic assessment of the technology behind SaniWASE.

Llŷr Anwyl, the COO, is a sustainable civil engineer with extensive experience in waste-to-energy solutions, water, agriculture and project management. Llŷr has used this experience to lead WASE's process and business development while also managing our piloting projects and financials.

William Gambier, the CTO, has a background in civil engineering and material science with experience in international development. William leads the development of WASE's technology, managing both the design team and the lab to ensure that the system validation and technical development is on track.

Victoria Bolam is the business development advisor. Victoria was previously the head of global head of market innovation and development at LIXIL. During the position, she led the introduction of new product lines to underserved markets across Sub-Sharan Africa and South East Asia. Combining these experiences with her work as an innovation consultant, Victoria heads WASE's business development and marketing management.

Our design team and lab research is supported by highly skilled individuals that share WASE’s vision and genuinely want to see our technology making a positive impact.

Currently we are partnered with the non-governmental organisation SNV and another leading humanitarian organisation, to install an Innovate UK funded, large-scale pilot in Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya for the end of 2020. We have additional research partnerships with both Brunel University London and London South Bank University. Further to this we are a member of the Toilet Board Coalition.

WASE is a B2B business and our business model is to sell the technology to redistributors that will re-sell or provide a service to communities or institutions focusing our product launch in Kenya. The four customer segments are agriculture, sanitation, wastewater treatment and anaerobic digestion providers. We’re situating ourselves as a manufacturer allowing us to serve multiple vertical waste markets through the redistributors.

A market analysis in collaboration with the Carbon Trust and Energy for Impact identified the most promising markets in Kenya to be institutional, municipal and commercial markets (food processing). These sectors will benefit most from our USPs of faster treatment, higher energy production, increased system stability and reduced downtime. A UK Aid funded energy access assessment carried out by LTS International (May-2020) found Kenya to be the second-highest enabling environment for bio-energy solutions. With Kenya topping the ranking for food processing.

The biogas market will likely be affected by Covid-19. Assuming a reduction in new installations, SaniWASE enables organisations to increase their waste management capacity at a lower CAPEX than installing a new AD system. Addressing just 1% of the total existing biogas market would generate $3.6 million in revenue.

SaniWASE is a patent-pending technology that’ll enable us to protect our technology in multiple sectors. Currently, all our project partners have signed NDAs to protect our IP, and we’re not disclosing any of our key business knowledge around the technical and business IP.

WASE has attracted multiple customers obtaining 6 LOI for 5,000 units over 5 years.

We want to make positive change. We are doing this by changing wastewater management from an economically draining model to a circular solution that creates value and provides energy, nutrients, and water resources. To play our part in tackling the 2.3B people who lack adequate sanitation set in the UNSDGs, our goal is to treat 2.3B litres of wastewater by 2030. Solve will enable us to make connections and meet partners, so that we can continue to validate both our impact and our technology. Additionally, the potential funding will allow us to test our technology in places that would really benefit from it. It ties perfectly into the second stage of our scale up strategy, where we aim to provide onsite waste treatment to refugee and underserved communities. But, due to higher barriers to entry we need grant funding to establish a sustainable business model.

We hope to meet partners that, in the short-term, can assist us in the validation of our product and, in the long term, assist us in the sale and distribution of our product. Additionally, we would like to use Solver resources to find talented future members of our team, people that share our mission and vision.

We are looking partner with any organisation that want to make a change to current waste management practices that are unsustainable and uneconomical. This could involve any Solver teams that generate biological waste or are working towards reducing biological waste, for example, Fresh Direct in Nigeria or Eesavyasa in India. Additionally, we would be extremely interested in working with MIT to continue to advance research in the are of energy recovery via knowledge exchanges and partnerships.

We can use The Andan prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion to conduct pilots in refugee camps further to the one we have planned at the end of this year in Dadaap refugee camp, Kenya.

In our planned pilot we will be installing a large-scale system that will treat the waste of 100 people with the UN-WFP. We would like to pilot our technology with other refugee communities to understand the technology's effectiveness and cultural fit.

Inadaquate sanition affects women in under-served communities disproportianately. For example, in schools where proper facilites are not available, menstruating girls are not able to attend, causing them to miss out on valuable education and widening the gap of gender equality.

Biodigesting solutions such as the SaniWASE have a clear positive impact on gender. Women constitute the ideal commercialisation force for biodigesters whose best selling points are around clean and convenient cooking and soil additives for smallholder farming, activities that women have direct knowledge and understanding of. In addition, women will directly benefit as end users with the ability to switch from biomass to biogas for cooking: enjoying convenience, saving time, and reducing exposure to harmful soot emissions that cause premature deaths due to respiratory diseases. Collection of firewood is oftentimes a burden that women and children have to bear, and students in WFP’s School Feeding programmes are sometimes required to contribute fuel to cook the meals. SaniWASE also produces water and soil enriching sludge that can be used to grow small woodlots producing fuelwood to use or to sell; a practice that women could align to tending their vegetable gardens.

We will use the prize to fund further projects in these under-served communities; providing wastewater treatment, sustainable energy and fertilisers to those that need it most.