Terax Ltd 2013, a joint partnership between Scion and Rotorua Lakes Council, received the New Zealand Innovation Council’s Innovation Award for Sustainability and Cleantech in October this year, for the company’s novel TERAX™ technology.

The Innovation Awards recognise high growth New Zealand organisations that have invested in developing innovative new products, services and ventures.

“It was a really pleasant surprise to win up against so many strong finalists, and the award is a great endorsement of the hard work put in by a lot of people over the last few years,” says Acting General Manager for Terax Ltd 2013, Rob Lei.

TERAX™ technology was developed to treat biowaste as a recyclable resource. The unique, cost-saving technology reduces wastewater, eliminates organic solids and recovers useful components such as nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon for recycling. Currently, the vast majority of municipal organic waste ends up as landfill, incurring high transport costs and generating large volumes of methane and toxic run-off that have flow-on impacts to the environment.

A TERAX™ demonstration plant is currently under consideration by the Rotorua Lakes Council. It is estimated the plant will save the council about 20% in waste treatment costs over the life of the project, compared to their current technology.