SEAB Power Ltd

SEaB Power Ltd, which trades as SEaB Energy, is a UK based company. The

company's mission is to develop and commercialise waste-to-energy technologies to turn organic waste into

energy exactly at the point where the waste is produced and the energy is required.

Our innovation, the FLEXIBUSTER, is a modular, containerised, fully automated, remotely monitored,

patented organic waste management solution for converting the waste to electricity, heat, and valuable

fertiliser while being integrated into buildings. The award-winning small scale waste-to-energy technology

is based on anaerobic digestion, designed to

process waste of mid-size food waste producers

(between 500kg and 3000kg of waste per day),

such as hotels, restaurants or catering

companies and municipalities. SEaB’s

proprietary anaerobic digester reduces the

carbon footprint and gains green energy and

organic fertiliser from a waste that normally

would end up on landfills. 

SEaB Energy has identified a clear need for compact, onsite food waste processing.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association

(FAO), the global volume of food waste is estimated at 1.6 billion

tons2, with a global cost of €700 billion annually. The EU alone

accounts for 88 million tons.

Food waste collection and disposal are particularly problematic for

households and a great number of smaller, decentralized waste producers,

which are typically located in densely populated cities or regions.

Wasting food is both an ethical and an environmental issue as it depletes the limited natural resources and

contributes to climate change, food waste alone generates about 8% of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions4.

There is a growing need for a “green” and more affordable solutions, which coincides with environmental initiatives, such as the European Green Deal strategy.

Flexibuster generates clean energy affordably, reduces GHG, produces low cost fertiliser and recapture the water in the organic waste, and reduces fuel povert.

Globally all nations and society at large are moving towards a more sustainable use of the planet’s ‘resources’. 

The key challenge is to move beyond the perception of ‘waste as a problem’ to ‘waste as resource’. As examples, the transition towards a circular economy will be key for Europe´s competitiveness but also longterm sustainability. In the USA (California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) have mandatory organic waste recycling laws. Singapore passed a “Resource Sustainability Act” in 2019 tmandating Developers of new large commercial and industrial premises to allocate space for on-site food waste treatment systems.

The International Energy Agency said that organic waste has huge untapped potential to provide clean energy and AD solutions could provide 20% of today’s global demand for gas. 

The efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy is among the EC’s priorities between 2019-24.

FLEXIBUSTER is the solution to organic waste recycling in the cities of the future . Onsite Anaerobic Digestion is the most sustainable and efficient organic waste management solution. In Europe alone, FLEXIBUSTER has the potential to reduce CH4 emissions by 14.5% and CO2 emissions by 1.5%, save €45.6 billion/year by recycling 161Mt of waste.

FLEXIBUSTER™ is a compact, modular, and fully integrated onsite food waste processing system, which turns the organic waste into energy and valuable fertiliser at the point where the waste is generated.

Food waste is eliminated in the process of anaerobic digestion. During this process, a large amount of biogas is generated, which is used to produce “green” electric energy right at the place of installation. The by-products are valuable organic fertilizer, water and heat. FLEXIBUSTER™ operates with positive energy balance, as it produces more electrical power and heat than the process requires.

All modules are mounted in standard containers. The minimum configuration consists of four separate modules. The capacity can be increased with the integration of additional digesting containers. 

FLEXIBUSTER can be installed in a building in the centre of a city as a waste appliance, eliminating the need for the organic waste to be collected or for sewage to be connected to city infrastructure.  In rural setting, Flexibuster can operate as a microgrid, providing waste, water treatment, power and fertiliser production in one package.

The Flexibuster is scaleable, moveable and easily maintained locally.  The biogas can be converted to road fuel, or stored for future use.

We have been working with companies in Europe and the USA to decrease the GHG emissions from their organic waste management, directly improving the air quality for workers and people in the vicinity.  The closed loop approach has been installed at:  St Cloud University,MN; Google HQ, NYC; Southampton Hospital, UK; Sepur Waste Management, Plaisir, France; Continente Supermarket, Gaia, Portugal amongst others.  Each site sees a reduction of 385 tonnes of carbon for every 1000 tonnes of organic waste processed.  

In addition, reliance on city infrastructure is reduced, sa the systems recapture the water in the waste for resue onsite and produce a bagged compost for use an organic fertiliser.  This creates a circular economy starting from the waste.

We are currently expanding our market to India and Nigeria, bringing the same benefits.  The access to power at a local level as well as a reduction in the impact on health of untreated water and organic waste, has a direct impact on local lives.  This helps to create improved living standards and access to power, water and fertiliser for all at an affordable level.

The original idea came to the co-founders in 2009.  There seemed to be a need for decentralised power production and an equivalent need to decentralise waste management and make it more sustainable.

Nick Sassow is the inventor of the product and is co-founder with Sandra Sassow, his partner.  Nick had been doing consulting while at PWC, for the large oil and gas corporates, who wanted to develop a renewable strategy.  He reviewed the types of solutions available.  Most were dependant on a robust grid to send the power produced to where it would be used.  Sandra identified the grid as the main issue with expansion, and a decentralised focus became key to the SEAB Power business plan.

Manure was the first waste source addressed - in the Muckbuster, sister product to the Flexibuster.  The system can convert small amount of animal manure to provide local energy.  The Muckbuster has been expanded to handle sewage sludge as well.  The Flexibuster unit was created to handle food waste from catering and food manufacturing.  Together the systems can process all types of organic waste at a localised level. 

Patents have been granted for the technology in 14 jurisdictions.

Taking the resource of discarded food, treating it locally, at a small economic scale, turning it into embedded renewable energy and an organic fertilizer is a step change away from waste disposal to a sustainable future which is becoming even more pronounced with recent challenges to be faced such as the global pandemic.

Our FLEXIBUSTER™ solution is perfectly aligned with the EU and UN’s goal to stimulate sustainable food consumption, reduce and reutilise food waste. It also has significant impact on carbon and climate change by reducing GHG from landfilling and transporting waste to landfills.

Our Flexibuster and Muckbuster solutions move the benefit of the resource recovery to the end user.  They eliminate the middle-man of waste corporates, enabling the true energy recover and resulting health and economic benefits to be provided to the community.

This is what makes us passionate about what we do.  We see all communities being able to benefit from this onsite closed loop solution.  We see a world where waste is not moved, where water is recovered, where resources are reused for in building farming, for example. We are looking to empower individuals to benefit from their own waste resource.

We have a very strong team with over 35 years in the waste sector, and a background in successfully scaling businesses on a global basis.  We are supported by our partners who are energy companies (Enagas), Facilities Management companies (Veolia, Engie),  technology providers (Rockwell, Honeywell, Autodesk), Innovation networks (Solar Impulse Foundation, UN Solution Summit, InnovateUK).We have assessed our technology through field trials to date and have established a network of agents, distribution partners, and assembly plants, to deliver the solution on a global basis. We have secured external funding from Enagas, the gas network operator of Spain, to accelerate our growth.  We have had the carbon metrics evaluated by Parson Brinkerhoff, and the business model validated by Solar Impulse Foundation, receiving their Seal.  We have won numerous innovation awards such as: Best Micro AD solution UK (ADBA UK); Launch Beyond Waste (a NASA initiative); Shell New Energy Challenge.

In the summer of ‘18, SEaB Energy entered into administration. We were a small clean tech startup competing with the goliaths of the waste management industry – we were outnumbered and outgunned. Our overheads were large, funding was sparse, and early adopters were few and far between – we failed to reach our beachhead before running out of cash. Our assets were liquidated to pay our debts; the doors were locked and our team sadly parted ways.

Fast-forward to the summer of ‘20, and we are back on our feet, leaner, greener, and packing a bigger punch than ever before. We are kicking down doors -  forming new strategic partnerships; landing customers (including one of the waste management goliaths we had been competing with); adding to our trophy cabinet with new awards; and we have secured funding from Spain’s national gas network operator.

We learned from our mistakes and acted on what we learned, never losing sight of our mission – to change how we globally think of waste: not as waste, but as a powerful resource – and to end the unnecessary transportation of garbage, for good.

We participated in a hackathon in Andrah Pradesh, India.  Our CEO, Sandra Sassow, was assigned to a team of female engineers, to offer them guidance from a personal standpoint as women in engineering, and from a project standpoint, to design, build and present a prototype system to the judging panel and the Chief Minister, in 72 hours.  She met the team, heard their stories of working as women in India and studying at the University.  They presented a successful project to the jury.  Sandra also accepted a role in the UK, as Entrepreneur in Residence and teaches from time to time in the Business & Law school at Portsmouth University.  

There are several SMEs and large companies that build AD plants, but none managed the level of compactness that FLEXIBUSTERTM has. SEaB Energy disrupts the market by its unique and critical advantage: it has the highest fit to ‘FUTURE CITY’ concept, i.e. FLEXIBUSTERTM is integrable into building infrastructure as an appliance (similar to a water purification, or an air conditioning unit), and can be managed by the building management system, it has unique odour control, modular design, can be even stackable and is remotely managed. In addition, it has the most attractive price. None of our competitors managed to bring to the market a fully functional, truly modular small-scale AD plant that can be quickly installed next to buildings or in confined spaces. Competitor products are placed mostly next to farms, processing agricultural waste. 

None of our closer competitors have the ability to have units next to or in buildings – that’s our unique competitive advantage.  In order to manage this, we solved Odour control and remote monitoring and fertiliser bagging.

We used Field pilots  to define the accurate return on investment, as energy, electricity, water supply, and fertiliser prices vary in different countries. For this reason, we conducted pilots: one in Portugal, another in France and another currently being set up in the UK.

The V5 prototype was installed at Portugal’s largest supermarket chain - Continente. The company is looking for ways of costs and carbon footprint and FLEXIBUSTER™ may be the answer to their needs. Jose Fortunati, Director of Sonae MC, Portugal commented “the investment in this pioneering waste-to-energy project reflects Continente’s relentless focus on adopting sustainable development measures. We believe in a green economy and the efficient long-term use of natural resources”.

Test results are based on three full year’s operation: Continente FLEXIBUSTER™ processed 216t of food waste, generated 88,000 kWh of electricity, 158,000 kWh of heat, and 180 t of fertiliser in a year.

During the pilot, we concluded that with the given Portuguese energy and fertilizer prices, operational costs and other parameters, the pay-off (ROI) of an estimated €350k investment price for the final FLEXIBUSTER™ is around three years.

“The investment in this pioneering pilot project reflects Continente’s relentless focus on adopting sustainable development policies based on the principles of green economy to ensure the efficient use of natural resources in the long run” Jose Fortunato, Director of SONAE MC, Continente, Portugal.

World Alliance Selection Group, Solar Impulse, a foundation financed by private companies and individuals and Swiss authorities selecting 1000 solutions that can protect the environment in a profitable way, labelled FLEXIBUSTER™ as an Efficient Solution after having performed feasibility assessment in late 2018.

The report states that FLEXIBUSTER™:

1. is a feasible solution (Technical feasibility) 

2. the solution has a high impact rating (Environmental and socio-economic benefits)

3. the entity behind the solution has successfully passed the Global Risk Analysis procedure

The assessment and performed field pilots as well as indicated interest from Veolia, City Football Group, Green Eco Technologies, Place (US), Food Waste Experts (US) (please LOIs in Annex) all prove the technical, economical and practical feasibility of FLEXIBUSTER™.