Craft breweries in drought-stricken Sonoma County, Calif., are testing a novel process that generates power while recycling wastewater.
Developed by an MIT spin-off firm, the EcoVolt system "takes the wastewater stream and, through anaerobic technology, turns it into methane gas that we then turn into electricity using a micro- turbine," says Leon Sharyon, CFO of craft brewery Lagunitas. Matthew Silver, a former MIT researcher and co-founder of Cambrian Innovation, Boston, developed the technology from past research on life-support systems for space stations. Cambrian is part of a cluster of Massachusetts water-technology firms.