Sustainable wastewater treatment solutions in focus
Onunda have developed carbon-negative wastewater management solutions for Local Authorities and Utility companies. Our solution eradicates land waste, removing microplastics and toxic forever chemicals from wastewater, and transforming it into a sustainable source of clean energy and nutrient-rich biosolids.
Whilst our origins are in Cumbria in the North of England, our ambitions are global. Onunda was established in direct response to the biosolid disposal challenges facing the Global Water Industry and was created to provide an innovative technology solution which would remove the need for any discharge to the environment from the treatment of sewage sludge.
Origins
The Onunda technology was created as a direct result of the concerns surrounding the natural ecosystem of Windermere, which has seen increased levels of pollution in recent years.
Brian Scowcroft, who lives in Windermere and is now Onunda’s Chairman, tasked one of his technology companies with creating a solution to the sewage waste challenge using their existing dryer and gasification technologies. He wanted to see if they could come up with a solution that turned the waste issue into an opportunity by extracting all the value and energy from the waste streams.
Technology development began in early 2022. The design focused on combining hydrothermal carbonisation with dewatering, drying and gasification technologies to create a new, integrated process which extracts maximum value from organic waste feedstocks and eliminates the discharge of pollutants back to the environment.
The technology requires no external energy, and actually provides excess energy from the process to the Grid in the form of low Nox clean energy together with high value nutrient liquids for fertiliser. As well as a carbon capturing residue material allowing the Onunda process to have a carbon-negative footprint.
Newcastle University’s Chemical Engineering Department completed a detailed feasibility study at the end of 2022, into “Thermochemical conversion of sewage sludge into energy and nutrients”.
A partnership with Newcastle University was then established to support laboratory testing and modelling for the HTC design. Our relationship has continued to flourish and Newcastle University is now the recipient of a Prosperity Partnership Grant from Innovate UK which will allow them to develop the HTC design with Onunda for the Pilot Project.
A patent application for the integrated Onunda technology was submitted in September 2022 and is still pending.
Onunda formalised as a stand-alone business in early 2023.
Onunda has a presence in the UK as well as a regional development office in Dubai focussing on the global business opportunities in markets where the Onunda technology will deliver significant benefits to local authorities and utility companies.
Leadership Team
Önundr
The name 'Önundr,' with its Norse origins, is commonly interpreted to mean "victory of the ancestors." Following the Viking invasion of Britain in the 8th century, some sources propose that Windermere might have been referred to as 'Onundr' for a certain period, possibly in honor of the Norse King. Our origins are intricately linked with the picturesque Windermere in the Lake District, and this meaningful association is the inspiration behind our company name, 'Onunda.'