Energy Technology Ventures has invested in Emefcy Ltd., which uses bioenergy from wastewater treatment to generate electricity. The company did not disclose the size of the financing round, its second, but added that current investors, Pond Venture Partners, Plan B Ventures and Israel Cleantech Ventures Funds, also participated. Estimates are that the financing round amounted to $4 million.
This is the first investment in a non-US company by Energy Technology Ventures, the joint venture capital arm of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), ConocoPhilips Corporation (NYSE: COP), and NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG), as well as its first investment in a water industry company.
Emefcy’s technology uses naturally occurring bacteria in an electrogenic bioreactor to treat wastewater. The organic material in the waste produces power and treated water, transforming wastewater treatment from an energy-intensive, cost-intensive and carbon-intensive process, into an energy-generating and carbon-reducing process.
The benefits are both economic and environmental. Conventional wastewater treatment uses 2% of global power capacity (80,000 megawatts, emitting 57 million tons per year of carbon dioxide) at a cost of $40 billion per year. Instead using conventional energy-intensive aerobic processes or methane-producing anaerobic digestion to treat wastewater, Emefcy harvests renewable energy directly from the wastewater and feeds it to the power grid, to create an energy-positive wastewater treatment plant. The primary initial applications are for wastewater treatment in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, with total market annual potential of $10 billion.
Emefcy CEO Eytan Levy said, "We will use Energy Technology Ventures’ investment to continue development of our technology into full-scale commercial implementation by the end of this year for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment. All told, wastewater treatment is a $100 billion industry, and our technology can significantly reduce the economic and environmental costs.
GE is active in wastewater treatment and is expanding its technology focus on Israel, called the “Silicon Valley of water technology". The company opened its newest multi-disciplinary R&D center earlier this month in Haifa, and will hire a dozen researchers work on clean energy, water, and healthcare technology projects. The Israel Technology Center will facilitate the introduction of advanced technologies to GE through partnerships with local technology companies and academia.
GE unit GE Energy Financial Services has also invested in SolarEdge Ltd., a developer of smart, holistic solar photovoltaic power harvesting and monitoring solutions to maximize energy and cost efficiency.
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