Bengaluru startup’s ‘disruptive’ tech deriving core concept from cow’s stomach to go global

PTI, Jun 15, 2021, 12:13 PM IST

Bengaluru: A Bengaluru-based startup’s ‘disruptive’ sewage treatment technology that derives its core concept from a cow’s stomach has gained ground, started getting international attention and now plans to go global.

ECOSTP Technologies has been chosen as the only startup from Asia by Museum of Design, Atlanta (MODA) to showcase its biomimicry STP (sewage treatment plant) solution at its annual exhibition Full Circle: Design without End later this year.

Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges and find hope along the way.

The exhibition will showcase the work of designers who are using and experimenting with regenerative approaches to realise works ranging from large-scale architectural projects to everyday products; and provide real-world actions that everyone can take to address the climate change challenge we are facing.

ECOSTP Technologies has been chosen for its innovation which treats sewage in a decentralised, self-sustainable way in underground chambers without power, chemicals, or human intervention.

”Using biomimicry, regenerative innovation inspired by nature, ECOSTP mimics the functional working of micro- organisms andecosystemsfound in a cows stomach”, the company’s Co-founder and CEO, Tharun Kumar told PTI on Tuesday.

The core concept of ECOSTP is derivedfrom a cows stomach, he said noting that the cow has four compartments called rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum and they ‘digest’ using ‘anaerobic bacteria’.

”We reverse engineered the concept using biomimicry principles and created the product and improved over the years”, he said.

”We have been selected by MODA for our ‘Zero Power Zero Operator’ sewage treatment technology that has no moving parts when compared to conventional STPs which use energy hogging motors, exhaust fans, pumps, and blowers”, Tharun Kumar said.

”Since inception, we have saved 280 million litres of water and have saved 315 MW of power which is equivalent to powering 35 villages for a year”, he added.

Conventional sewage treatment today is based on twin principles – Blow air through fecal matter using blower motors (that is why it is so smelly) and add bacteria every one hour(technical jargon is MLSS or RAS process).

”99.99 per cent of the market is conventional STP. We are disrupting that marketwith ECOSTP”, Tharun Kumar said.

Regarding water and power saved, he said the startup has undertaken 80 installationsin 15 states (many in progress) which switched from conventional STPs to ECOSTP to treat sewage.

The company also recently deployed an STP for Nambi Temple in Tirunelveli forest in Tamil Nadu.

ECOSTP has also implemented the ”’Toilet to Tap’ – Waste water to Drinking Quality” (of course that needs power as RO system is required) for Coevolve Estates, Bengaluru.

ECOSTP addresses six UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has been earlier selected as a ‘Best Practice’ case study for the United Nations ESCAP SDG Sustainability Asia Pac report, according to him.

”ECOSTP Technologies solutions are currently deployed across 15 states in India and the company plans to expand its footprint to Indonesia, Africa, and Bangladesh to begin with, in the near future”, he said.

”We are planning to go global where power is a issue”.

ECOSTP’S association with Brigade Real Estate Accelerator Program (Brigade REAP) as mentors has taken it a long way in sourcing funds, fine tuning its business plans and implementing its go-to-market strategy, Tharun Kumar said, adding, technical mentoring (Cow Stomach) is by Biomimicry Institute based in Montana, the US.