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Israels Sewage-Eating Bacteria Lure GE Cash to Curb Energy Costs Israel
Israels water industry is attracting funds from General Electric Co. (GE) and ConocoPhillips as the country develops energy-saving technology to treat sewage, part of a $5 billion program to clean up water supplies by 2016.
Emefcy Ltd., building a fuel cell that uses bacteria to break down waste in water, has raised about $10 million from investors including GE, NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) and ConocoPhillips, its Chief Executive Officer Eytan Levy said in a telephone interview. The process reduces the amount of energy required to treat sewage and generates electricity.
Weve seen a significant increase in interest in resource recovery from wastewater that wasnt there just a few years ago, Levy said from Caesarea, Israel. The company is targeting sales in Europe and the U.S. and forecasts annual revenue of more than $100 million by 2017, he said.
The bacteria project is a small part of Israels effort to alleviate a water shortage without straining limited energy supplies. The countrys dry climate and lack of desalination capacity put it at the forefront of a global increase in water scarcity, which the United Nations says will extend to 30 countries by 2025, a gain of more than 50 percent from 1990.
Israel has doubled its exports of water technology to $1.5 billion following a state-funded program that began in 2006, said Dimitra Christakou, head of water insight services at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London. The nation has attracted global interest as governments and utilities study how it has invested to cope with the depletion of underground aquifers.
In June, Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE opened a research and development center in Haifa, Israel, and invested in Emefcy through Energy Technology Ventures, a joint venture with NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips. (COP)
Its important for us to make sure that weve got the right technologies, Steve Kloos, advanced technologies leader at GE Power & Water, said by phone from Minnetonka, Minnesota. Energy is a big deal in water treatment, he said, adding that Emefcys equipment is different because it generates power while treating the wastewater.
The more efficient you can be from an energy standpoint, the better the overall economics are going to be, he said.