MEMBio · Application of Microbial Fuel Cells for waste water treatment

The importance of water for human life is irrefutable. However, it exists a real threat to global water quality due to the pollution generated from residential, industrial and commercial origins. Nowadays, the social trend is to move towards a circular economy to replace the conventional ‘take-make- consume and dispose’ model of growth, where water recycling will play a significant role. Currently the annual world demand for fresh water is 64 bn m3, where just about 7.1 bn m3 comes from recycling due to the high cost of the technologies for wastewater treatment. The need to reuse water along with the scarcity of water has encouraged the development of new water treatment systems to satisfy the growing demand. ÆNEAM aims at launching to the market a green, versatile and efficient process for the industrial synthesis of biocompatible ceramic scaffolds materials for their use in wastewater treatment. Our system will reduce the energy demand, reducing the generation of sludge with a minimum maintenance. Nevertheless, we still need to carry out full operational test to validate our solution for its subsequent commercialization. In addition, we need to forge commercial agreements with strategic partners to guarantee our presence into the market. Our market, the Agroindustry global wastewater treatment market, was valued at €1.7 bn in 2017, and its forecast is to grow at a CAGR of 5.35% from 2018 to 2023. Based on our commercialization plan we will offer our solution to the rural environment companies of the agro industrial sector, which will include not only the sale of MEMBio, but also maintenance and consultancy services. Following our business strategy, we establish an average price of 1,000€/unit for industrial membranes, and 300€/unit for research purposes. Based on the profitability of the project we expect a cumulative revenue of €14.2 M by the third year, meaning a cumulative cash flow of € 7.2 M. Considering a 3-years forecast will give us a ROI of 294%.