Dec. 16, 2010

A group of students from the Erb Insitute for Sustainable Enterprise and the School of Engineering won first prize in the student division of a Michigan business-plan competition. ReGenerate, a company started by Erb students Paul Davis, Nolan Orfield and Hunt Briggs, along with chemical engineering PhD student Bobby Levine, won $25,000 in the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition on December 10.

ReGenerate developed a business plan and a prototype unit to convert food waste into renewable energy. The company plans to lease the small-scale anaerobic digestors, called Compact Organic Waste Systems (COWS), to supermarkets and school cafeterias. The COWS system is based on the digestive system of cows and converts food waste into methane gas and a nutrient-rich soil amendment. The heat from the unit can be used to heat water, and the solid waste would be collected by local composters. The soil amendment can then be bagged and sold.

ReGenerate video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3-i6Oo2ARA

Accelerate Michigan: http://www.acceleratemichigan.org/main.cfm?cid=2235