On October 20th, 2011, the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program released a Program Opportunity Notice (PON-11-501) entitled “2011 Emerging Technology Demonstration Grant Program (ETDG II).” The purpose of the solicitation was to fund emerging technologies in the industrial, agricultural and water sectors that will significantly reduce California’s energy and water use. Proposers competed in the following project categories: 1) Water and Wastewater; 2) Data Centers; 3) Customer-Side Electricity Storage; and 4) Industrial Energy Efficiency Projects.

Quantitative BioSciences received a grant of $1,500,000 to build a full-scale wastewater treatment system on the Van Ommering Dairy Farm in Lakeside, CA. Work is currently underway on the construction on the system, which will handle 40,000 gallons of waste per day and include two 200-foot, 60,000 gallon high rate algae ponds.