Nothing Goes to Waste With ETI
“Piloting was absolutely instrumental for both demonstrating and advancing ETI’s biogas-CO2 processes. The Water Council was the catalyst for all that.”
-Bryan Johnson, Founder, ETI
Anyone who has tried to bring a new water technology to market knows it is not a quick process. But after 11 years, Bryan Johnson feels like he is on the edge of a breakout for his company, Energy Tech Innovations (ETI).
Through ETI, Johnson first developed a low-cost, water-based patented gas treatment system tailored for wastewater treatment plants that purifies the biogas into renewable natural gas (RNG) that can replace natural gas supplies in just about any type of energy production.
While this water-based biogas purification process, commonly referred to as the “water wash process,” that removes the carbon dioxide (CO2) from the biogas has existed since the mid-1980s, ETI has simplified this process approach, dramatically lowered its cost and added the ability to recycle wastewater as part of the overall process.
In addition, ETI has developed biogas-CO2 patented processes that can supply a supersaturated carbonated CO2 water stream for beneficial use in wastewater treatment applications that include pH reduction, enhancing chlorine disinfection, ozone stabilization, phosphorus and ammonia removal, solids separation plus other treatment applications.
The result is a first-in-market process that reduces a facility’s costs and emissions, leading to the company’s mantra, “Nothing goes to waste with ETI.”
Johnson founded ETI in Milwaukee in 2015 and participated in The Water Council’s BREW Accelerator in 2016. The program helped him think through aspects of launching a business outside of the technology itself, such as marketing and pitching. Those pitch skills helped him place third in the advanced manufacturing division of the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest in 2023, he said.
Bryan Johnson demonstrates his technology at the Waukesha Water Utility pilot.
In 2018, ETI launched a technology demonstration pilot system at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), facilitated and funded through The Water Council’s Pilot Program. After a two-year piloting period at MMSD, ETI then launched and completed another successful pilot system at Waukesha’s wastewater facility.
“Piloting was absolutely instrumental for both demonstrating and advancing ETI’s biogas-CO2 processes,” Johnson said. “The Water Council was the catalyst for all that.”
Now, Johnson is moving forward with commercializing his technology. He hopes to continue working with MMSD, noting that ETI's biogas-CO2 process is highlighted in MMSD's 2035 long-range energy plan as a favorable process that will be considered in the district’s preliminary engineering design request for proposals expected later this year. As part of his commercialization plans, he also wants to partner with a multi-discipline engineering firm or water technology company that could incorporate ETI’s biogas-CO2 systems into their full suite of offerings.
Johnson indicated that he plans to continue to take advantage of the connections and opportunities that membership in The Water Council brings. “The Water Council has provided so many opportunities that have been really valuable to ETI throughout each stage of our growth,” he said.