What does raising cows and making beer have in common?

The industries both create wastewater. And this wastewater has a lot of organic matter in it.

Most companies do not care about their wastewater, and they usually do the minimum needed to meet local regulations. This can lead to neglected infrastructure, pollution, and literally shitty water getting into our lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater.

Why don’t they care? Because it’s an expense - it eats their bottom line.

But what if it didn’t have to?

What if they could monetize their waste?

Waste to Bitcoin

Companies with “high strength” wastewater (aka lots of organics) can use a process called anaerobic digestion to clean their water and create methane (aka biogas).

This is usually either burned (flared) or used to generate electricity by being fed to a generator or fuel cell.

Then the electricity would be used to power the facilities, or sell back to the grid.

But there is little profit to be made selling to the grid, which lengthens ROI.

This is where Bitcoin comes in.

What if, instead of selling electricity to the grid, this was used to power Bitcoin miners. The excess heat from miners could be harvested as part of the cogeneration process and used to heat the anaerobic reactors.

By mining Bitcoin the company would effectively be monetizing their wastewater, providing incentives to upkeep and improve their treatment processes.

Win-Win

This seems like a win-win for the company and the environment. The company makes money from their wastewater, and the wastewater discharged is kept cleaner since the infrastructure is maintained.

Thanks for reading!