Aepnus Technology<\/a>, told TechCrunch.<\/p>\nAkuzum and co-founder Lukas Hackl didn\u2019t set out to create a small circular economy, instead stumbling upon it when touring lithium mining operations in California and Nevada. The pair of chemists, who have been friends since they met in their dorm\u2019s cafeteria, were researching possible startup ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were thinking about lithium extraction or something in the minerals space,\u201d Akuzum said. \u201cEvery time we spoke to somebody from the industry, they were like, \u2018Well, there are actually solutions for lithium extraction. But we have this waste product that\u2019s coming out of our operations, and we really don\u2019t know what to do with it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After returning from the trip, Akuzum and Hackl turned the idea over in their heads, eventually deciding to refine an existing technology to turn that waste into raw materials that the facilities could use in their operations.<\/p>\n
The two founded Aepnus to modernize the century-old chloralkali process, which splits salts like sodium sulfate back into the acids and bases that created them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company uses electrolyzers to zap the salts, coaxing them into splitting. Other companies do the same thing, but they might use pricey metals to help speed the reactions. \u201cWe don\u2019t use any expensive catalysts in our electrolyzers,\u201d Akuzum said.<\/p>\n
Aepnus is currently shipping half-scale models of its equipment to customers, who can test the devices on their own wastewater streams. Each site\u2019s wastewater is likely to contain different contaminants, some of which need to be filtered beforehand. Once they\u2019re out, the electrolyzers can work on removing the sodium sulfate.<\/p>\n
For customers, fully recycling sodium sulfate waste should reduce disposal and material costs. And for those with remote sites, like miners, they\u2019re also saving on transportation. \u201cRather than mining operations purchasing these chemicals and getting them trucked in from very long distances, we can regenerate those chemicals onsite from the waste,\u201d Akuzum said.<\/p>\n
The startup has over 15 customers at various stages ranging from feasibility studies to testing the pilot-scale equipment. Aepnus recently raised an $8 million seed round to ship more pilot-scale electrolyzers and develop the commercial-scale version. The round was led by Clean Energy Ventures with participation from Gravity Climate Fund, Impact Science Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Muus Climate Partners and Voyager Ventures.<\/p>\n
If Aepnus can commercially produce its electrolyzers, it would mark a milestone for the U.S. \u201cThere\u2019s only a handful of companies in the entire world that have the expertise of building these types of electrolyzers,\u201d Akuzum said. \u201cUnfortunately, there\u2019s not a single company in the United States that has that know how.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year, BASF had to delay the opening of a battery materials plant in Finland when a court agreed with environmental groups that the company didn\u2019t have a good plan to deal with its wastewater.\u00a0 As battery factories spring up around the world, the specter of wastewater threatens to stall their construction. One startup, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-104370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}