Start-up

Environmental engineer Wenzel Gruber and microbiologist Robert Niederdorfer – both Eawag postdocs – founded the spin-off Upwater together with two other partners at the beginning of November 2022. It offers measurements for wastewater treatment plants to support them in reducing process instabilities, greenhouse gas emissions as well as energy consumption.

Finally, a cat flap that prevents feline friends from bringing their prey indoors. Powered by artificial intelligence and backed by Swiss know-how and talent ETH Zurich start-up, Flappie Technologies is poised to become the cat’s meow.

One important question regarding the planned transition to supplying energy without greenhouse gas emissions is: how can we store energy for times when wind turbines and photovoltaic systems are not supplying electricity? Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute and the start-up AlphaSYNT offer one possible answer. With a new approach to “power-to-methane” conversion, they are promoting a technology for storing energy in the form of methane gas that is ready for industrial use.

EPFL researchers have built a pilot-scale solar reactor that produces usable heat and oxygen, in addition to generating hydrogen with unprecedented efficiency for its size.

EPFL startups had a successful fundraising year in 2022 despite the economic headwinds. In a sign of investor confidence, 28 of these startups raised CHF 1–5 million each in seed funding, for a record total of CHF 73 million.

Blood platelets can be stored for only up to a week, and hospitals often run short of this life-saving resource. To help overcome this problem, an EPFL startup called HemostOD has developed technology that can produce blood platelets in large volumes and on demand.