Renewable Energy and Fertilizer

Student: Lauren Walker, 2022-2023

With the onset of climate change, there is a critical need for reliable renewable energy technologies that can support the global transition toward a sustainable, low-carbon future. Given current supply chain and life-cycle sustainability concerns regarding the rare earth elements integral to technologies like solar and wind, it is imperative to have energy options that are less reliant on these rare resources.

By utilizing a centuries-old technology called anaerobic digestion (AD), ITility, LLC’s renewable energy division, IREA, has successfully created a patent-pending system that employs microbes to convert food and agricultural waste into reliable renewable energy and sustainable, nutrient-specific fertilizer. In this way, IREA’s AD and purification systems can create renewable, methane-rich biogas that can be turned into renewable natural gas (RNG), hydrogen gas, and other valuable products while reducing pollution from food and animal wastes, sequestering carbon, and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

This is an exciting time for the AD market given recent legislative support. This capstone project will involve the identification and development of commercial opportunities, as well as state and federal grants and incentives. The process will include 50+ stakeholder interviews, a market assessment, and financial analyses to create the best value propositions and increase sales.