Chart, page-1290

Some people seem to think that copying MABR is like breaking down something like a Dyson vacuum, seeing how it works, and then building a "Tyson" vacuum from cheap parts and selling it for a fraction. This kind of thinking betrays a shrieking ignorance of the MABR tech.

The biochemical engineering which has gone into the creation and (crucially) the regulation of the "B" in our MABR is not as simplistic as that. Primarily, because you are dealing with a living thing. A mass of living things. It's not nuts, bolts and washers. I wish the one or two who consistently harp about copiers would at least attempt to understand this difference. Most of us don't fully understand the biofilm, but at least we understand you can't copy it from a video or even from a handful of it.

A biofilm is a cocktail of different types of micro-organisms, generally bacteria. It can react differently to ANY given environment or stimulus. Like almost any mass of organisms if it is successful it can "prosper". It can grow or multiply. This spells trouble. And if you mean to leave it in a remote unmanned location for years and years, it spells catastrophe for the validity of your technology.

The main problem in terms of MABR has been the effect of clogging. The biofilm devours the organic materials suspended in the wastewater, it then multiplies, clogging membranes, causing obstructions to the throughput. So, it needs to be regulated. You need to be able to monitor the activity of tge biofilm and encourage or suppress it dependent on circumstances. Therefore you need to study it's behaviour in all kinds of circumstances. This is painstaking scientific work. Wastewater is not all created equally. Think about, if you can bear it, the variety of what might flow into a wastewater treatment plant. Right? What are the myriad reactions of this living thing, and how do you make sure those reactions stay balanced when no-one is looking, over a period of perhaps decades? Eventually, you will end up with an algorithm which understand the various stimuli, and reactive signals, and can respond in a 'smart' way to offset any potential disturbance to the plants operational capability. There are only 3 teams in the world who have ever successfully achieved this feat. It took Eytan and Ronen 7 years to achieve it, and theirs is the only one which has been field-proven over years and is now ready to be mass-produced.

So lets see, to copy it, you'd need everything. You'd need an idea of the makeup of the micro-organisms in the biofilm (which can augment or mutate over time like the contents of a wine bottle), you'd maybe need the research of what potential pitfalls and red flags may exist, and you'd need the cloud-based algorithm which dictates reactions to certain stimuli or effects. I'm envisiging a wholesale campaign of hacking, industrial espionage, then intense scientific study and application to make sure it all checks out, plus field testing.

In truth, copying MABR is much less likely than someone simply inventing it again independently like Emefcy, GE, and OxyMem did. This is how these three teams ended up with working MABR at this point. A Chinese private or state-owned entity could very well come out with MABR some day. That's no failure of Fluence, that's just a symptom of sharing the world with others. In fact, new MABR rivals are our managements expectation in time. However, it is highly unlikely that they will have "copied" it from us. That would take some doing.

Anyway. Here's a bit referring to OxyMem's MABR which reiterates the main challenge of creating a functioning MABR.

https://verde.ie/products/waste-water-treatment/oxymem-mabr/

"As with any biofilm reactor for wastewater treatment, the pollutant degrading microorganisms grow continuously, resulting in an increase in biofilm thickness. It is important to have some means of maintaining a stable biofilm thickness in order to ensure good contact between the wastewater and the biofilm. This was the main technical impediment that had prevented the commercialization up to the early part of this century. Uncontrolled growth of the biofilm which can lead to reduced rates of treatment if the biofilm is not managed but this is managed by OxyMem’s patented Biofilm control system."

We don't have global rights to MABR either now or in future. What we have is a head start. Significant first mover advantage, a massive opportunity, and a management team who believe they can execute a bold strategy to use that advantage to see this company emerge as a major global player.