Clean-tech company BioGill Environmental has purchased the intellectual property for state-of-the-art BioGill water cleansing technology from the Australian Government.
BioGills are purpose-built bioreactors that work to cleanse wastewater and grey water by gravity feeding it over above-ground Nano-Ceramic Membranes.
Bacteria and fungi in these membranes “eat” waste out of the water and “breathe” in air. The result of this approach is a treating biomass of 10-15 times that of conventional biological wastewater treatment systems.
The technology, effectively “five-star accommodation” for microorganisms, was originally developed in the research laboratories of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, ANSTO. The technology was the winning entry in the ABC’s 2006 The New Inventors program.
In 2007, Chief Executive Officer of BioGill Environmental Jason West, took part in an industry event at ANSTO and attended a presentation on a new nano-particulate membrane technology. He was so impressed he stayed on to meet the research team and learn more about the invention.
“Over the ensuing two years, we negotiated with ANSTO for the exclusive rights to license and commercialise the technology which is now known as BioGill. ANSTO first licensed the technology to us in 2009 and we have now purchased all rights for the intellectual property,” explained West.
The wastewater market is a growing, multi-billion dollar industry. BioGill Environmental has already supplied BioGills to companies in Australia, New Zealand, India, Fiji and Canada and has secured significant investment capital to help take the technology to the global marketplace. Worldwide patents are also in place for both the gill technology and the wastewater treatment process.
“This is innovative technology that has proven effective in treating grey water, sewage and wastewater from food and beverage processing and has huge potential for cleansing water on ships, offshore platforms and remote islands where protecting sensitive environments is essential,” West said.
“Using BioGill for maintaining clean ponds in prawn and fish farming is the next logical step in our product development,” he concluded.
[Image courtesy BioGill.]