Generate Upcycle, a waste-to-value platform founded by Generate Capital PBC, today announced the commissioning of the first Varcor™ system dedicated to the treatment of septage and biosolids from municipal wastewater.
Located in Sumner, Wash., the facility is owned by Generate Upcycle and operated in partnership with Sedron Technologies, the research and product development company that created the Varcor technology. The new facility recycle septage and biosolids to produce both pathogen-free solid fertilizers and aqueous nitrogen fertilizers that can be used as key inputs in agriculture.
The Varcor technology converts waste into dry organic fertilizer and clean water. Sedron says that the technology is based on mechanical vapor recompression — a process that normally uses heat and pressure to recover thermal energy from liquids.
The system uses a mechanical and thermal process that eliminates the use of chemicals, the need for costly cross-state hauling of liquid waste, and land application of biosolids. It also claims to use less energy than traditional treatment processes.
“The Varcor system not only reduces the environmental impact of traditional treatment methods by eliminating toxic by-products, but it also lowers the cost of liquid waste disposal,” says Bill Caesar, president of Generate Upcycle. “Municipalities and other liquid waste haulers now have an option to reduce their GHG emissions and eliminate contamination risks while saving money.”
With a total capacity of 150,000 tons per year, Generate Upcycle’s Sumner facility can treat a significant portion of the septage and biosolids from Washington’s King and Pierce Counties.
While the Sumner facility only treats municipal waste, Generate and Sedron will apply the same technology on other sites to treat agricultural and industrial waste. Sedron’s Varcor technology already has established experience in recycling livestock waste.
The Sumner facility will also reduce nutrient pollution into the Puget Sound by diverting hundreds of thousands of pounds of nitrogen from existing wastewater plants and producing a climate-smart nitrogen fertilizer that displaces the production of fossil fuel-derived fertilizers.
“Partnering with Generate is now allowing us to deploy the technology at scale and dramatically improve the sustainability of wastewater treatment in North America,” says Peter Janicki, fFounder and CEO of Sedron Technologies. “Together, we are helping cities across the U.S. turn sewage into valuable resources through a fully circular process.”
