Singapore-based Memsift Innovations and Birla Cellulose have executed a partnership agreement to explore, co-develop, and implement the former’s technologies for zero liquid discharge (ZLD) and resource recovery applications from the waste streams as its global operations.
Under this agreement, Birla Cellulose, a provider of man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCF) and part of the Aditya Birla Group (ABG), will lead the piloting of solutions using the Memsift technologies with an objective of improving the closed loop technologies that can go beyond the currently available technologies, and help set up new benchmark for closed loop processes in the MMCF industry.
Birla Cellulose plans to pilot and evaluate the technologies from Memsift to recover more than 95% of water and chemical recovery from the waste streams and also with a benefit of lower carbon footprint by up to 80% compared to the conventional methods. The joint piloting is expected to be completed by mid-2022, which will be followed by commercialisation of the technology.
This partnership was facilitated by ABG Innovation Fund and it enables pilots and co-development of new technologies leading to scaling up support for Memsift and innovative solution deployment at ABG. It also enables Memsift to engage with other projects at ABG businesses at early stages. Memsift may license the technology to ABG for sales in India and other identified geographies in a later phase upon successful implementation of pilot at ABG. The STOMATE and TS-30 systems would also be piloted in various ABG’s manufacturing sites and adopted for initial reference before exploring the chemicals recovery and ZLD market in large.
Dr J. Antony Prince, founder and CEO for Memsift Innovations, said: “This will allow us to work closely with ABG businesses to commercialise the membrane distillation technology in industrial scale, and we hope to build the largest MD unit for resource recovery application in the near future. This partnership is aligned to the vision of ABG Innovation Fund, which aims to work together with tech start-ups to develop solutions for the world’s most pressing problems like water and climate change to preserve resources and a clean environment for the next generation.”
