London-based startup looks to recover valuable chemicals from wastewater

Metal Morph

METAL MORPH, an innovative startup based in London, is looking to make the utilities industry more circular through the recovery of aluminium and valuable chemicals from wastestreams.

The company has developed a patented technology that recovers spent water and chemicals from residual waste through several stages of separation.

Aluminium and iron-based chemicals are used in the wastewater treatment industry as coagulants to help gather and remove phosphorus and heavy metals from water before it can be discharged.

Usually after this process, these chemicals are also disposed of in landfill or sewers, which could potentially be a loss in further use and reuse of those chemicals.

Metal Morph’s technology looks to put chemicals back into wastewater treatment, which it says could help utility companies rely less on the chemicals supply chain – where aluminium ore is highly volatile – and reduce operational emissions by more than 10%.

The company’s technology works in four stages. The first is through acid leaching of target metals, which are then passed through an ion exchange membrane. The final stages include using nanofiltration techniques to process the acid for leaching reuse, and recycling the resulting coagulants back into the wastewater treatment process.

Recently the firm secured a seed funding round of £700k (US$946k), which it expects to use to scale up its technology with the support of its industry partners Thames Water and Anglian Water.

The company also received an additional £100k in funding from UK water regulator Ofwat, with a further £450k available over the coming months as milestones are met.

Moletsane Mophethe, the founder of Metal Morph, said: “With Metal Morph, I want to help change that reality. Water infrastructure is one of the most overlooked industrial supply chains in the world. By harnessing them correctly, we are fundamentally reshaping the supply of essential chemicals to reduce the cost of water production.”