Top 52 Waste-to-Energy startups

Updated: Dec 07, 2025
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These startups develop new waste energy technologies such as anaerobic digestion, gasification, pyrolysis, plasma arc gasification, refuse-derived fuel, landfill gas recovery, waste-to-hydrogen, bioreactor landfills, incineration with energy recovery, microbial fuel cells, etc
1
Wien Energie
Country: Austria | Funding: €2B
Wien Energie is responsible for ensuring the reliable supply of electricity, natural gas and heating.
2
LanzaTech
Country: New Zealand | Funding: $1.3B
By recycling carbon from industrial off-gases; syngas generated from any biomass resource (e.g. municipal solid waste (MSW), organic industrial waste, agricultural waste); and reformed biogas, LanzaTech can reduce emissions and make new products for a circular carbon economy.
3
Enerkem
Country: Canada | Funding: $871.5M
Enerkem is a cleantech company transforming waste into transportation biofuels, renewable chemicals and everyday products.
4
Vanguard Renewables
Country: USA | Funding: $430M
Vanguard Renewables is a national leader in the development of organics-to-renewable energy projects.
5
Fulcrum Bioenergy
Country: USA | Funding: $281.2M
Fulcrum Bioenergy converts household garbage into low-carbon transportation fuels, including jet fuel, diesel, and ethanol.
6
Plastic Energy
Country: Spain | Funding: £124M
Plastic Energy offers a sustainable solution to help prevent plastic pollution by transforming previously unrecyclable plastic waste into and optimal feedstock for making clean recycled plastics or alternative law-carbon fuels.
7
Anaergia
Country: Canada | Funding: $126.8M
Anaergia offers comprehensive, integrated solutions for municipal solid waste management, resource recovery in the wastewater sector and waste management for large agricultural and food processing enterprises. The company develops world-leading solutions for anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, organic matter recovery and biogas upgrading. Anaergia's anaerobic digestion technology has been implemented at over 1,000 facilities in more than 17 countries. The company provides customers with equipment or designs, finances, builds and operates complete biorefineries. The company's goal is to become the world's leading producer of renewable fuels while simultaneously reducing global carbon emissions.
8
Zeno Power
Country: USA | Funding: $94.9M
Zeno is developing next-generation radioisotope power systems that generate carbon-free, resilient power for decades. It also has an Air Force contract to build a satellite powered by nuclear waste
9
Sierra Energy
Country: USA | Funding: $90M
Sierra Energy’s blast furnace heats trash to 4,000 degrees and then harvests the gas to make plastics and fuel.
10
Arbor Energy
Country: USA | Funding: $68.5M
A carbon removal and storage company delivering negative emissions energy. Arbor’s innovative system generates clean electricity transforming plentifully available organic waste—like overgrown brush, crop residues, and food waste—into fuel for an engine.
11
M2X Energy
Country: USA | Funding: $64M
M2X Energy has developed a technology to capture methane from gas flare sites and convert it to liquid methanol, which can then be transported and used in low-carbon fuels and other materials.
12
Moment Energy
Country: Canada | Funding: $61.5M
Moment Energy develops clean, affordable, and reliable energy storage by repurposing retired electric vehicle batteries.
13
FusionOne
Country: Canada | Funding: $56M
FusionOne diverts plastic waste from landfill to convert it to Hydrogen and Electricity
14
Nexterra
Country: Canada | Funding: $40.8M
Nexterra delivers advanced gasification systems to self-generate clean, low cost heat and power using waste fuels.
15
Raven SR
Country: USA | Funding: $38.3M
Raven is a producer of green hydrogen and synthetic fuels using organic waste.
16
Woodland Biofuels
Country: Canada | Funding: $33.4M
Woodland Biofuels develops technology ti produce cellulosic ethanol from waste biomass, such as wood chips and agricultural waste.
17
HomeBiogas
Country: Israel | Funding: $32.3M
Homebiogas is anaerobic digesters that convert kitchen waste and animal manure into cooking gas and liquid fertilizer.
18
Orcan Energy
Country: Germany | Funding: €28.5M
Orcan Energy is a waste heat recovery tech company developing ORC platform technology to produce mechanical energy and electricity.
19
WasteFuel Agriculture
Country: USA | Funding: $28.7M
WasteFuel Agriculture is focusing on ways to create a waste-to-energy infrastructure where farmers can tap new business opportunities.
20
Enexor Bioenergy
Country: USA | Funding: $22M
Enexor BioEnergy developed a small-scale, renewable energy system that converts organic and biomass waste into clean electricity as well as hot and chilled water. This combined heating and power system has broad applications for commercial, industrial and institutional use.
21
Unblock
Country: Cayman Islands | Funding: $22.2M
Unblock is a climate technology company that offers a solution to mitigate emissions.
22
UNIVASTUM
Country: Ireland | Funding: $16,5M
UNIVASTUM has developed and advanced universal waste gasification technology and providing turn-key waste to energy solutions which are oriented for smaller municipalities and industrial customers. Our general approach - fast project implementation, fast results, maximum efficiency and reliability.
23
Cambridge Industries
Country: Ethiopia | Funding: $12.8M
Cambridge Industries is developing waste-to-energy projects in emerging market.
24
WASE
Country: UK | Funding: £9.2M
WASE provides a decentralized sanitation system with the goal of accelerating the global adoption of circular waste treatment.
25
SGH2 Energy Global
Country: USA | Funding: $10M
SGH2's technology uses high-temperature plasma torches to incinerate recycled waste, producing hydrogen as a byproduct.
26
Inventure Chemical
Country: USA | Funding: $7M
Inventure Chemicals develops an ethanol and biodiesel conversion process by using a variety of raw materials including algae and agribusiness waste.
27
Ecotone Renewables
Country: USA | Funding: $5.3M
Ecotone Renewables has developed the “Seahorse”, which reinvents the food and plant waste disposal system, taking food that would otherwise be wasted and turning it into renewable energy and nutrient-rich fertilizer, through the process of anaerobic digestion.
28
ARC Ento Tech
Country: Australia | Funding: $5M
ARC Ento Tech has developed the patent-pending ARC Process technology, which transforms waste into sustainable products including food, fuel and industrial materials.
29
Vespene Energy
Country: USA | Funding: $4.3M
Vespene Energy wants to convert landfill methane emissions to electricity for bitcoin mining. It sequesters methane and burns it to power the microturbines, which in turn generate electricity.
30
Renewell Energy
Country: USA | Funding: $4.1M
Renewell Energy created a mechatronic conversion system called Artemis Prime as an energy storage solution. This "fancy regenerative winch" aims to take inactive oil and gas wells that leak pollutants and use them for energy storage.
31
Ossus Biorenewables
Country: India | Funding: ₹197M
Ossus uses waste carbon in industrial effluents as the starting material for green hydrogen. The startup has developed an AI-powered, intelligent bioreactor.
32
SEaB Energy
Country: UK | Funding: $2.1M
SEaB Energy manufactures compact, easy-to-install, turnkey Anaerobic Digestion (AD) systems in shipping containers that turn organic waste into energy exactly at the point where the waste is produced and the energy is required.
33
REVOLUTION Turbine Technologies
Country: USA | Funding: $1.8M
REVOLUTION Turbine Technologies is developing a compact, emissions-free turbine that generates power using only waste gas pressure.
34
ZaaK Technologies
Country: Germany | Funding: €1M
ZaaK Technologies is an innovation and technology development start-up company focusing on recycling industrial wastes into high value products. Using patented clean technologies, ZaaK intends to revolutionise building and construction industry with state-of-the-art technologies and high quality products produced from fly ash, a waste by-product from coal-fired power plants.
35
Ki Hydrogen
Country: UK | Funding: $1.1M
Ki Hydrogen is a deep-tech venture that develops waste-to-hydrogen technology.
36
Brightmark
Country: USA
Brightmark is on a mission to "reimagine waste" with its groundbreaking plastic renewal technique. Brightmark collects plastic materials and processes them into pellets through shredding. These pellets are then placed in an oxygen-starved container, providing an eco-friendly alternative as low-grade fuel.
37
Wildfire Energy
Country: Australia | Funding: $109K
Wildfire Energy’s solution converts waste into electricity and hydrogen, with negative carbon emissions.
38
GELF Energy
Country: USA | Funding: $24K
GELF Energy has redesigned the anaerobic digestion process with the development of a system called the Microbial Energy Device, which produces higher quality methane in one-tenth the time, at doubled efficiency, with nature-based carbon capture technology.
39
Facet Power
Country: USA | Funding: $10K
Facet Power’s revolutionary technology is optimized to produce clean, green, high purity streams of hydrogen from biomass and organic waste.
40
Petgas
Country: Mexico
Transformamos residuos plásticos en combustibles limpios mediante nuestra tecnología patentada.
41
Earth Recycler
Country: India
Earth Recycler is a pioneer in providing integrated environmental friendly services, solutions, strongly committed to protecting the environment by improving the communities in which we work and live. Earth Recycler is equipped with a team of professionals who have proven expertise in developing sustainable and cost effective solutions for environmentally concerned clients. Our recycling initiatives are custom designed for various sectors from corporate organizations, educational institutions and residential apartments to the community at large.
42
Terrawaste
Country: Netherlands
Terrawaste uses its proprietary thermochemical conversion technology ‘htloop’ to convert carbon-based waste such as plastic, wood or agricultural waste into a biofuel.
43
Carbon Masters
Country: India
Carbon Masters has developed a bottled bio CNG (compressed natural gas) brand Carbonlites. It is made by converting food and agri wastes into clean renewable energy that can displace LPG for commercial cooking in restaurants and hotels
44
Altent Renewables
Country: Singapore
Altent Renewables is a startup developing the most efficient solution to turn wet waste into clean fuels.
45
Paterson Energy
Country: India
Paterson Energy is a waste to energy company that recycles plastic waste into quality plastic oil.
46
PolyCycl
Country: India
PolyCycl converts non-recyclable, low-grade mixed waste plastics to petroleum fuels.
47
Co-Energy
Country: Israel
Looking at two of the world’s most burning challenges – extreme rise in human made waste and the constant growth in demand for clean energy – we at Co-Energy make one a solution for the other.
48
Mega Gas Alternative Energy
Country: Kenya
Mega Gas Alternative Energy converts plastic waste into clean and affordable cooking gas for low-income families in Africa.
49
Boson Energy
Country: Israel
Boson’s Hydrogen-capable Plasma Assisted Gasification technology (HPAG) produces Hydrogen for direct local use from a wide range of non-recyclable solid wastes by applying high-temperature thermochemical recycling.
50
Pyrotask Energy
Country: India
Pyrotask Energy in converting various types of plastic waste into industrial fuel
Alexander Gillet
Editor: Alexander Gillet
Alexander Gillet is a senior editor for EnergyStartups. He has a deep background in energy sector and startups. Alexander graduated from Emlyon Business School, a leading French business school specialized in entrepreneurship. He has helped several non-profit organizations dedicated to promoting environmental education and sustainability and has written over 250 articles on energy technology for various websites. In his free time, Alexander enjoys yoga, camping and exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains. You can contact Alexander at alexgillet(at)energystartups(dot)com