How Mike Started

For more than 40 years Anaerobe Systems has been a world leader in Anaerobe Science. After ten years of research and development Mike Cox, founder, and CEO, accomplished what many considered impossible by patenting the Continuous Anaerobic Fermentation System (CAFS).

Mike’s original intent was to use the fermentation process to make hydrogen, a clean fuel. However, one day Mike was showing the system to a close friend and commercial farmer. During the discussions he asked about the waste material, which came from plants, and asked if he could send it out for analysis. He came back and said, “I’m paying a lot of money for what you’re throwing away. You have a fantastic fertilizer.’ So, we started making fertilizer.”

We’re really seeing a change in agricultural practices and knowledge from farmers and gardeners looking for less synthetic chemical combinations. The components in our fertilizer and soil amendment are readily beneficial to the soil, plants, microbes, fungi, and everything in the soil. They have a low NPK, but there are benefits that aren’t in other fertilizers.

We are also seeing a change in regulatory requirements to reduce nitrogen application to crops and reduce climate pollutant emissions. Our process helps solve both problems.

Anaerobe Systems formed a new division, Anaerobe Energy, in 2018 to commercialize CAFS and introduce the technology to the world. FermeGROW™ Liquid Fertilizer, the first available product, was released in 2019 and the following year was approved by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) as FermeGROW™ Organic Liquid Fertilizer, followed by FermeCHAR™.

Why Fermentation

Fast

Controlled

Organic

Soil Health

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Problem

According to Flavin and Lenssen of the Worldwatch Institute, “if the contribution of biomass to the world energy economy is to grow, technological innovations will be needed, so that biomass can be converted to usable energy in ways that are more efficient, less polluting, and at least as economical as today’s practices.”

These processes take weeks to months and still have an environmental impact.

Current methods used for the elimination of agriculture waste, invasive plants, and other biomass using digestors, percolation ponds, composting, and landfills have a significant environmental impact and are not sustainably viable.

Solution

Our Process

CAFS uniquely takes unwanted biomass from farms or food processing plants and grinds, sterilizes, ferments, and centrifuges the feedstocks into FermeGROW and FermeCHAR in 3 to 5 days.

Benefits

Sustainably and economically produces an organic liquid fertilizer

Provides an alternate to synthetic chemical fertilizers

Contributes to healthy soils with less nitrogen

Solves agricultural food processing waste problems

Reduces fugitive greenhouse gases by reducing need for composting

Conserves carbon in the ground, not as CO2 in the atmosphere

Meets regulatory requirements for CA SBI383 and Ag Rule 4.0

Hydrogen produced may be stored for use in fuel cells that run forklifts

The Future

We see a future where farms have a zero-carbon footprint and contribute to the environment rather than negatively impact it. We envision that agricultural biomass will no longer be viewed as a waste or a costly disposal problem but as a valuable bioresource in the production of fertilizers that will support farmers in feeding the world.