The team behind a homegrown technology start-up with the potential to make a global impact is backing Cumbria Food Awards.
The new company, Onunda, was launched this year against the background of widespread alarm about the alleged discharge of raw sewage into Windermere and its effect on water quality, the environment and eco systems.
The Carlisle-based company’s ambition is to use its innovative technological solution to avoid the need for any sewage to be discharged into lakes or waterways, while, at the same time, recovering energy and nutrients.
To help promote its mission, Onunda – the name is inspired by the Norse origins of the word for Windermere – is to sponsor the Sustainable/Ethical Business of the Year category at the 2024 Cumbria Food Awards.
CEO Tom Samson said he and his fellow directors, who include businessman Brian Scowcroft of Carlisle’s Kingmoor Park, are keen to back the independent awards event and in turn, to encourage sustainable businesses with similar goals to their own.
“We want to support businesses that are putting sustainability and climate change at the forefront of what they’re doing,” he said. “While we’re not a food and drink industry, we want to be associated with that type of solution.”
Tom, who has a background in the nuclear industry and was formerly CEO of NuGen and Rolls-Royce SMR, said that the Onunda team had been motivated by the much-publicised problems of raw sewage discharges into England’s largest lake.
While not suggesting that Onunda is a solution to that issue, Tom said that they wanted to play their part by finding a new method for dealing with human waste.
He said: “We started Onunda in response to what’s happening in Windermere. What we’re doing with Onunda will, hopefully, avoid the need for any sewage to be discharged to any lake or waterway.
“The technology is aimed at providing an alternative way of treating raw sewage. It can also be used to treat sewage that currently gets sent back to landfill.
“This is a global technological solution that will potentially have applications in the wider global market.”
Their aim is to run a pilot in 2024 to prove that their technology works.
Developed by Onunda’s chief technology officer James Meyer, the process begins with hydrothermal carbonisation, which uses pressure and temperature to break down the sewage to its constituent parts, removing microplastics, forever chemicals and pathogens and leaving behind a hydro char.
In turn, the char is converted to syn gas, which is used to power the process and to provide excess energy as electricity back into the National Grid. By-products include an ash that has an application as a fertiliser.
The Onunda team believes their technology could also help housebuilders to meet regulations surrounding nutrient neutrality, unlocking previously unavailable sites for development.
- Cumbria Food Awards, in association with Caterite, take place on Thursday, March 14 at Kendal College and will be hosted by TV presenter, chef and restaurateur Simon Rimmer. There is still time to make a nomination or to enter your business by visiting www.cumbriafoodawards.co.uk
