WASE and Hitachi sign a MoM on 22nd August 2022 to collaborate and develop business opportunities of WASE’s Electoro-Methanogenic technology together with Hitachi’s business expertise.
WASE won Hitachi’s Innovation Challenge for Circular Economy in March 2021. We were selected as 1 of 3 winners for our innovative Electro-Methanogenic Reactor technology, which can revolutionise wastewater treatment for food and drink processors. Since winning, WASE has been working with Hitachi’s innovation team that has expertise in the food & beverage, food retail and other industry sectors, especially in Japan and UK. WASE and Hitachi have been exploring market opportunities in Japan and Southeast Asia to explore the most promising opportunities to deploy WASE’s EMR technology.
Following Hitachi’s mission of social innovation. The Water & Environment Business Unit (WEBU) and Corporate Venturing Office within Hitachi launched the Innovation Challenge for Circular Economy. Hitachi set 3 challenges that they feel are imperative to ensuring that the planet we pass on to the next generation will be a better place than the one we found!
Our EMR technology supports all three pillars of the challenge. We can treat wastewater from F&B processors to reduce organics (COD) by >95% whilst generating biogas. The water can then be sustainably processed for potable or non-potable uses on-site, reducing water demand. Additionally, we can take unavoidable food waste streams produced at factories and process them into biogas and fertiliser to replenish soils. Hitachi was impressed with the ability of WASE’s EMR technology compared to alternative technologies like Anaerobic Digestion. Our faster treatment, increased gas yields and compact size made our technology attractive to Hitachi’s senior leadership team, which could see the opportunity for EMR to be deployed across South East Asia.
Our formal partnership lays out three clear steps for WASE and Hitachi to work together to develop a route to roll out the technology.
- Stage 1: is developing the economic and technical business feasibility for market entry into the international food and drinks sectors.
- Stage 2: is a Business feasibility with an on-site study for conducting a pilot scale test
- Stage 3: Developing business strategy based on the above results of the first two phases will lead to considering the first commercialisation project in Japan.
The agreement is the first step in expanding into Asia, and we are very excited about the partnership and the potential sustainable impact it creates. WASE has successfully completed the pilot project of its technology at a UK brewery to bring the circular solution into society. We are now working on evaluating other key aspects of the technology as part of the staged development.
It has been a pleasure working with Mr. Hiroyuki Yoguchi and Hitachi team over the past year. We are excited by the opportunity that the partnership could bring. Together I know that we can rapidly increase our impact by unlocking the power of waste to create a better future for the next generation.
Thomas Fudge, CEO & Founder of WASE
On behalf of Hitachi, I would like to express my appreciation on our recent collaboration between both parties. We are also delighted to pursue the goal of bringing this innovative Waste to Energy solution to the market in the coming years, which can help combat climate change problems.
Hiroyuki Yoguchi Manager, Global Business Development of Water & Environment Business Unit at Hitachi
Hitachi drives Social Innovation Business, creating a sustainable society with data and technology. We will solve customers’ and society’s challenges with Lumada solutions leveraging IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products, under the business structure of Digital Systems & Services, Green Energy & Mobility, Connective Industries and Automotive Systems. Driven by green, digital, and innovation, we aim for growth through collaboration with our customers. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal year 2021 (ended March 31, 2022) totaled 10,264.6 billion yen ($84,136 million USD), with 853 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 370,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at https://www.hitachi.com.
