A UBC Innovation Snapshot: Be inspired by and connect with innovators at UBC
Who are you?
Boost Environmental Systems offers the IMPACT™ process for municipal wastewater treatment plants which need to reduce the costs of sewage sludge treatment and disposal. The IMPACT™ is a sludge treatment process that significantly reduces sludge volume and saves plant operational costs. Unlike other processes, IMPACT™ is simple, more efficient, and less expensive. In addition, it allows for resource recovery from waste. The IMPACT™ process can also be applied by livestock farmers to reduce the volume of manure, divert it from excessive land application, and generate valuable products from it, such as fertilizers and biogas. The IMPACT™ process currently undergoes pilot testing with potential early adopters in municipal and agricultural sectors. Our company was founded in 2016 by a group of researchers from UBC led by Dr. Victor Lo to commercialize the process. We have successfully negotiated a license agreement with UBC to be an exclusive worldwide technology provider.
In the past year, our CTO Asha Srinivasan received the Mitacs Entrepreneur Award, and Boost Environmental Systems and UBC are a parts of a consortium that won the BCIC Ignite Award.
What problem are you solving?
Municipal wastewater treatment plants spend over 50% of their operational and maintenance costs for sludge handling, treatment and disposal. In addition, many plants face increasing urban population and may need major infrastructure upgrades to be able to provide efficient sewage treatment. Adopting the IMPACT™ process into any existing plant would realize significant operational cost savings as well as defer major process upgrades and capital costs associated with it.
Additional benefits would also include enhanced nutrient and energy recovery from wastewater. In livestock agriculture, manure application on a limited land basis is becoming an issue for many farmers. Overloading the land with nutrients can result in pollution of sensitive aquifers. Application of the IMPACT™ process for dairy manure treatment can result in reduced manure volume, nutrient release, and enhanced nutrient and energy recovery. It would allow farmers to generate value added products from the manure.
How does your idea contribute to society?
The IMPACT™ process can improve and safeguard water quality and wastewater management that is vital for economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainable development. The technology provides effective treatment of sewage sludge while reusing and recycling resources such as water, nutrients and energy, resulting in an effective environmental and health protection strategy. The IMPACT™ process offers energy neutral solution to municipal wastewater treatment plants by reducing their carbon footprint and utilizing the energy potential of wastewater. The ability to extract nutrients from manure and reduce the amounts applied on land will have a positive impact on nutrient management planning for the livestock industry. The IMPACT™ process could affect society environmentally, socially and culturally by promoting sustainable farms and resource reclamation facilities. This would make our society environmentally sustainable and encourage the growth of a green economy.
What do you need now?
Given the needs and trends in the municipal wastewater treatment and livestock farming industries, there is a significant market opportunity worldwide for the IMPACT™ process. The first step in assessing this opportunity was to do a thorough market research which we accomplished with the help from entrepreneurship@UBC and financial support of Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP). At the same time, it is equally important for our company to engage with various industry stakeholders to promote our technology. Our company needs a solid marketing strategy to be able to reach out to our potential clients and end users to showcase all the benefits the IMPACT™ process can offer. Building the right team is the main key to success. Our company is looking to expand our team to fill the gaps in expertise that we would need to build a successful venture. Another critical milestone is developing our technology from a minimum viable product into a holistic product that would offer maximum benefits to end users for minimal costs. Our team has successfully demonstrated the technology for application in agriculture and is currently working on pilot projects with a couple of municipal wastewater treatment plants in BC. In order to achieve the abovementioned milestones and build a successful, rapidly growing company, we are actively looking for investors who can help us with it.