Innovation & Technology Innovation & Technology

Coca-Cola Adds Wastewater-to-Energy Tech to Circular Manufacturing Toolbox

Pipeline Organics’ technology will convert sugar-rich wastewater into clean, cost-effective renewable electricity to help power CCEP’s food and drink manufacturing operations.

Published 3 months ago | About a 3 minute read

Image: Alleksana

The business innovation arm of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) — the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler and one of the world's leading consumer goods companies — has invested in a tech startup turning wastewater into clean electricity.

CCEP Ventures has led an investment round for Pipeline Organics — a UK-based climate-tech company focused on converting sugar-rich wastewater into “a continuous supply of planet-friendly electricity” to help power CCEP’s food and drink manufacturing operations.

Pipeline Organics — which manufactures portable fuel cells that can generate electricity and heat through an electrochemical reaction — secured £800,000 in the round led by CCEP, as well as additional grant funding from Innovate UK.

Pipeline told The Grocer that the funding will help scale its technology from a laboratory setting to “real-life operational environments,” including Coca-Cola manufacturing sites across Europe.

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It will also streamline development for more applications of this “cleaner and cheaper” energy within the food and drink industry; Pipeline’s first commercial product is on track to be launched by the end of 2025.

“Volatile energy prices, inefficient distribution networks, deteriorating infrastructure and unreliable supply chains are creating huge problems for industries worldwide,” said Pipeline Organics co-founder and CEO Arielle Torres. “Existing renewable-energy technologies are just not good enough, and we desperately need more innovative energy solutions fit for the future.

“Our technology has the potential to solve many of these challenges as it promises to deliver clean, cost-effective renewable electricity 24/7 directly on site — stabilizing energy access and operational costs without sacrificing sustainability.”

This is just the latest in a string of strategic partnerships and investments from CCEP Ventures aimed at scaling circular technologies that harness industrial waste streams as manufacturing resources: In 2022, the company joined forces with the University of California Berkeley to develop scalable methods of converting captured CO2 into sugar. Then, in 2023, the company funded Swansea University research into how carbon captured from industrial plants can be reused to make new plastic packaging; and partnered with Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain and the Netherlands’ University of Twente to accelerate their research into carbon-capture technology and explore how captured CO₂ can be turned into a variety of useful products for CCEP’s supply chain — including packaging materials and sugar, carbonation for soft drinks or fuel to power its factories.

Its latest investment aims to put Pipeline Organics’ tech to work converting sugar-rich wastewater from the manufacturing process back into a free-flowing supply of renewable electricity. The startup has developed a compact generator the size of a brick that can already generate more power per year than a 550W solar panel, saving space and enabling a quick retrofit on site.

“Renewable energy is critical to our decarbonization journey; and the prospect of generating it onsite, using existing infrastructure and byproducts, is incredibly exciting,” said CCEP associate director Nicola Tongue. “We’re looking forward to working with Pipeline Organics as they enter the next phase of their journey, as we work towards our goal of using 100 percent renewable electricity across our sites by 2030.”

79 percent of the electricity CCEP purchased in 2023 was renewable, according to the company's 2023 Impact Report.