Imagine a garden that feeds itself using old sewage water instead of expensive chemicals. It uses special bacteria that act like a biological battery, cleaning the water and creating a small amount of electricity to power grow lights. It basically turns waste into food and energy in one closed loop.
Urban agriculture relies heavily on expensive, polluting chemical fertilizers and external energy sources for lighting and water management.
A bioelectrochemical platform consisting of 40 MFC modules that convert wastewater into electricity and liquid fertilizer.
If you are a vertical farm dealing with high chemical fertilizer costs — this project developed a prosthetic rhizosphere that recovers nitrogen from wastewater. This reduces reliance on synthetic inputs while producing food and animal feed.
If you are a utility provider dealing with nitrogen pollution in sewage — this project developed MFC modules that can process 2.5 L of untreated sewage into 1.2 L of liquid fertilizer every 48 hours.
If you are a developer dealing with energy-intensive urban greenery — this project developed a system that generates renewable electricity from wastewater to power wavelength-specific LEDs for plants.
Based on available project data, specific pricing or cost-per-unit is not provided, though the project aims for cost savings through reduced chemical fertilizer use.
The project is designed in two phases, with Phase 2 specifically focusing on integration with Microbial Electrolysis Cells to allow for scalability and diverse applications.
Based on available project data, there is no specific mention of patents or licensing agreements, but the project is developing marketing strategies via an ACORN booster grant.
It is designed as a decentralized, low-power digital infrastructure using IoT and big data for nitrogen management, making it suitable for urban environments.
The project period runs from 2023-11-01 to 2027-10-31, suggesting it is currently in the development and testing phase.
The consortium consists of 7 partners across 6 countries, showing a strong academic lean with 4 universities and 1 research institute. However, there is a 29% industry ratio including 2 industrial partners and 1 SME, indicating a transition from lab research toward commercial application.
Contact the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven research office regarding the Mi-Hy project.
Contact SciTransfer to connect with the Mi-Hy consortium for licensing or pilot partnerships.
