Topics

Latest

AI

Amazon

Article image

Image Credits:SweetBunFactory / Getty Images

Apps

Biotech & Health

Climate

A battery pack rolls off a production line.

Image Credits:SweetBunFactory / Getty Images

Cloud Computing

commercialism

Crypto

go-ahead

EVs

Fintech

fund raise

Gadgets

Gaming

Google

Government & Policy

Hardware

Instagram

layoff

Media & Entertainment

Meta

Microsoft

Privacy

Robotics

protection

Social

Space

Startups

TikTok

Transportation

speculation

More from TechCrunch

event

Startup Battlefield

StrictlyVC

Podcasts

Videos

Partner Content

TechCrunch Brand Studio

Crunchboard

Contact Us

in the beginning this year , BASF had todelay the openingof a battery materials plant in Finland when a court agreed with environmental groups that the company did n’t have a good plan to parcel out with its sewer water .

Asbattery factories spring up around the humans , the specter of wastewater peril to stall their building . One startup , though , says the solution is n’t to dispose of it , but rather to recycle it .

Wastewater from these plant go forth ladened with Na sulfate , a by - Cartesian product of sulfuric acid and sulphurous soda , two chemicals used in battery manufacturing , atomic number 29 purification and other industries .

“ We can totally create a circular economic system around these reagent chemicals , ” Bilen Akuzum , Centennial State - founder and CTO ofAepnus Technology , told TechCrunch .

Akuzum and co - founder Lukas Hackl did n’t set up out to create a small round economy ; rather they stumble 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 ’s cafeteria , were researching possible startup ideas .

“ We were recollect about lithium extraction or something in the mineral space , ” Akuzum said . “ Every clip we spoke to somebody from the industry , they were like , ‘ Well , there are actually solutions for lithium extraction . But we have this waste mathematical product that ’s come out of our operations , and we really do n’t know what to do with it . ’ ”

After hark back from the trip , Akuzum and Hackl work the idea over in their heads , eventually deciding to refine an existing technology to turn that waste into raw material that the adeptness could use in their operations .

Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI

Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI

The two founded Aepnus to modernise the 100 - old chloralkali summons , which splits salt like sodium sulfate back into the acids and nucleotide that make them .

The troupe practice electrolyzers to zap the saltiness , coaxing them into splitting . Other society do the same affair , but they might apply pricey metallic element to help belt along the reaction . “ We do n’t utilize any expensive catalysts in our electrolyzers , ” Akuzum said .

Aepnus is presently embark half - scale of measurement models of its equipment to customer , who can test the twist on their own wastewater streams . Each site ’s sewer water is likely to contain different contaminants , some of which need to be filtered beforehand . Once they ’re out , the electrolyzers can crop on removing the Na sulfate .

For client , fully recycling sodium sulphate waste should reduce disposal and material cost . And for those with removed sites , like miners , they ’re also lay aside on transportation . “ Rather than mining operations buy these chemical substance and nonplus them truck in from very long distances , we can regenerate those chemical substance on - site from the waste , ” Akuzum say .

The startup has over 15 customers at various stages , ranging from feasibility studies to test the airplane pilot - scale equipment . Aepnus recently raised an $ 8 million seed bout to ship more pilot program - scale electrolyzers and develop the commercial - scale version . The troll was led by Clean Energy Ventures with participation from Gravity Climate Fund , Impact Science Ventures , Lowercarbon Capital , Muus Climate Partners and Voyager Ventures .

If Aepnus can commercially produce its electrolyzers , it would brand a milepost for the U.S. “ There ’s only a fistful of troupe in the entire globe that have the expertise of build these type of electrolyzers , ” Akuzum say . “ Unfortunately , there ’s not a single company in the United States that has that know - how . ”