Today I raise a glass to Cambrian Innovation, whose bioelectric EcoVolt uses wastewater from brewing and winemaking to produce energy and conserve water.
Matt Silver, founder and CEO of Cambrian Innovation, is a NASA researcher who once aspired to be an astronaut. His EcoVolt uses the same basic technology that recycles waste products on the International Space Station. It’s essentially a fuel cell that uses wastewater as the fuel and a colony of microbes as a living, renewable catalyst.
One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure
Inside the EcoVolt, microorganisms eat the organics from wastewater, producing a small amount of electricity. The electricity flows through a circuit that produces methane, which is burned to generate heat. Clean water is a byproduct of the process. . . . .