Belgian environmental company penetrates the Japanese and American markets

23/12/2016

The Belgian company OWS has been successful in winning contracts to extract biogas from household waste in Japan and the United States.

The contract in Japan, worth around 20 million euros, came only after a demonstration that the technology used by OWS is truly effective. This is why, back in 2007, a trial installation was built, producing biogas from organic material.

It also took a number of years to secure contract in the United States, one worth over 30 million euros. The project involves an installation for the annual fermentation of 60,000 tons of selective organic waste from the San Francisco area.

OWS has made its name in the sector for its use of the so-called DRANCO technology, whose unique feature is that it allows household waste to ferment when 'dry', so without needing to add water.

There are currently around 80 employees working for the company in Ghent. OWS, which is in fact an abbreviation of ‘Organic Waste Systems’, was founded over a quarter of century ago by its current CEO De Baere, together with the microbiologist Willy Verstraete from Ghent University.