Our Sewage and the Global Water Crisis

We talked to Enes Kutluca of Biopipe Global Corp about its no sludge sewage treatment technology and how it is solving the global water crisis and this is what he had to say.

How are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Enes Kutluca: Thank you for asking. Living in these uncertain Covid-19 times has shown me that it is important to be thankful for things we usually take for granted. While my family and I are all safe and healthy, many others are not. My heart goes out to the families who are struggling from lack of work, the resulting homelessness, and the mental effects of being couped inside for far too long. I am happy and confident that we will get through this difficult time together and use this time to innovate for our future.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Biopipe Global Corp.

Enes Kutluca: Since I was a young kid, my passion has always been in Industrial Design, coming up with designs that revolutionize product functions and look. I have also always dreamed about being an entrepreneur and making a difference in the world around us. 

While in high school, I envisioned that water would be a critical resource in the coming years, so I began to research innovative solutions to the pending water crisis. Through this research, I learned about reusing sewage to offset new water sources and alleviate water stress. However, the technologies we use today are old technologies full of operational and quality inefficiencies. They are hard to scale, expensive, and are often failing. So, I began to develop my technology that solved the issues of existing systems.

The Biopipesewage treatment technology came to in my garage during university. I knew that for our technology to be successful, it had to be three things. It must be innovative, easily constructed, and cost-friendly. It also had to treat sewage to a high-quality water standard to be reused for irrigation or other purposes. With this in mind, I decided to use cheap material, PVC pipes, as a tool to create a highly efficient, modular form that optimizes old technologies’ failures. Biopipe’s beauty is its ability to complete complex biological processes to treat sewage water to irrigation quality standards without producing sewage sludge. It means that 99-100% of the water that goes into the system comes out of the system as treated reusable water. Additional benefits are that it does not produce odor, is virtually silent, chemical-free has low energy consumption, and has a flexible footprint.

How does Biopipe Global Corp. innovate? 

Enes Kutluca: We are continually innovating at Biopipe. Although our system offers many advantages over other sewage treatment systems, we often find ways to make our design and process even more efficient or add more value to our customers. 

Biopipe also holds partnerships with other innovative technologies in the water and sanitation sectors to address industrial wastewater and contaminated drinking water sources. We believe that tackling the world’s water problems means that innovation must happen to the entire water cycle, providing security for tomorrow’s water supply. 

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Enes Kutluca: Like most companies, the coronavirus pandemic has been brutal operationally. We currently operate in 7 countries and need to deal with the varying coronavirus restrictions in each country. It means that shipments get delays, or our engineers cannot be on-site with our installation team. 

Luckily, Biopipe has turned this setback into an opportunity for innovation. We have been able to create a process for remote installations and create efficiencies in how we operate. Additionally, our pre-pandemic decision to change our disinfection method from chlorine to UV dosing has indirectly benefited us during coronavirus. Our UV light dosing ensures that pathogens and virus removal is complete. 

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Enes Kutluca: When the coronavirus pandemic hit, we were in the process of entering a few new markets. We had to quickly decide if we would pull back all our operations until the pandemic was over or to push forward. After careful and strategic deliberation, we decided to innovate and use this challenge to our advantage. We are now seeing the fruits of these efforts as sewage treatment projects in our new and existing markets create intense interest, significantly as the coronavirus pandemic has increased the need for proper sanitation and water security in many countries. 

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Enes Kutluca: I learned a long time ago that stress and anxiety are things we can control. They are symptoms of how we react to a particular situation. To combat this, we must change how we respond to moments in life and cherish every moment. The coronavirus pandemic has only made this more important.

If you realize that you cannot control everything globally, you stop stressing about situations you cannot change. Instead, when problems like this arise, I trust that everything will turn out well, and sometimes things that seem wrong can turn out to be good.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Enes Kutluca: There are many competitors in the sewage treatment market, but their inefficiencies and issues are why Biopipe came into being. Biopipe decentralizes sewage treatment, treating sewage on-site such that water is continuously recycled rather than being dumped out to sea. Its also changing the biological sewage treatment industry by treating water without the production of sewage sludge, a toxic byproduct of old treatment technologies, that has been a messy problem with no clear global solution. 

Biopipe is also modular, affordable, has no odor, no chemicals, virtually silent, low energy consumption, automated, remotely monitored, and flexible footprint. 

Even with all the benefits of our flagship technology, Biopipe is still continually innovating, trying to create a more efficient system and solutions so that we can secure our water for tomorrow.

Your final thoughts?

Enes Kutluca: Innovation is essential to our future. Do not be afraid to make your dreams a reality. 

It is up to all of us to imagine a better world. It includes thinking about our environment and how we can combat climate change and the water crisis for future generations. 

I challenge you to find small and straightforward ways to innovate in your daily life.

Your website?

https://www.biopipe.co