Reflections from the first national Cleantech Expo at AUT Auckland — where Aotearoa's circular-economy innovators met the councils, investors and infrastructure partners ready to put them to work.

Published: 22 April 2026 Event: Auckland Cleantech Expo, AUT Auckland Organised by: Auckland Council Economic Development Office, supported by the New Zealand Cleantech Mission

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Alimentary Systems at the Cleantech Expo ▶ https://youtu.be/FVW70wkfxIo

A two-minute look at the BRRP story and why we believe wastewater and organic residues are the next frontier of New Zealand's clean-energy economy.

Alimentary Systems was proud to exhibit at the inaugural Cleantech Expo at AUT Auckland — a gathering that, for the first time, put thirty of Aotearoa's cleantech innovators in one room with the councils, investors and industry buyers who will determine how quickly our climate solutions reach scale. Organised by Auckland Council's Economic Development team and supported by the New Zealand Cleantech Mission, the Expo made a simple but powerful case: local solutions can solve global climate problems, and the market for them is already here.

Our thanks go first to Auckland Council and its Economic Development team for convening the Expo, to AUT for hosting, and to Phil Anderson for emceeing the day with characteristic warmth and clarity. A particular acknowledgement to Paula, Pam McLeod-Clan, and the wider organising team for the work — often invisible — that goes into spotlighting cleantech entrepreneurs, and to Miley and the production team who helped many of us tell our stories on camera.

A room worth being in

The attendee mix was what made the day matter. Council representatives, industry procurement leaders, energy-sector offtakers, infrastructure operators, investors and university students moved through the exhibitor hall in a steady flow — not as spectators, but as potential counterparties. For a company like ours, whose commercial pathway runs directly through councils, waste operators, and energy buyers, that density of the right people in one place is rare and valuable.

We had genuine, specific conversations across every one of our revenue streams:

• Council & Procurement — Open, practical dialogue about how cleantech procurement actually happens at council level, and where local technology can outperform imported solutions on both price and outcomes.
• Energy Offtake — Early-stage conversations with energy-sector counterparts about potential biogas and biomethane offtake agreements tied to our BRRP project pipeline.
• Water Infrastructure — Strong engagement with water infrastructure providers on biosolids projects, a sector facing real compliance pressure under the 2025 Wastewater Environmental Performance Standards.
• Investors & Talent — Productive meetings with investors and fellow Edmund Hillary Fellows, plus rewarding conversations with AUT students exploring careers in soil innovation, circular economy, cleantech finance and software.

It was good, too, to share the room with peers we admire — Neocrete, Usefully, Mushroom Materials and others — whose work sits alongside ours in a connected economy of biological, material and regenerative solutions. A highlight of the day was the launch of the McGuinness Institute's latest cleantech report, which places the Expo itself into a wider national policy conversation about how Aotearoa builds its cleantech economy.

"Local solutions can solve global climate problems — and the procurement conversations we had at the Expo prove the market is ready, if the supply is."

Why this matters for ASL

For Alimentary Systems, the Cleantech Expo landed at an important moment. We are in the final stages of an active capital raise for our Nelson BRRP project, with a Ministry for the Environment co-funding deadline in early May. Our 20 tonnes-per-day demonstration plant at Bell Island is already converting organic waste and sewage sludge into biogas, bio-fertiliser and carbon credits — the four revenue streams that anchor our commercial model, alongside gate fees.

Events like the Expo compress months of stakeholder engagement into a single day. They also remind us that ASL does not sit inside a niche: we sit inside a national movement. Every conversation with a council procurement officer, a water utility, an energy buyer or an investor reinforces our core thesis — that what much of the world still calls "waste" is, in fact, unconventional gold.

Biomimicry, biology and AI

A consistent thread through the day was how quickly AI is reshaping cleantech. For ASL, this is not a grafted-on feature — it sits at the heart of how the BRRP operates.

BRRP.IO — where a bovine gut meets machine learning

Our patented BRRP is modelled on bovine digestion: a biomimicry-based anaerobic co-digestion system that behaves less like a reactor and more like a living organism. Sitting above that biology is BRRP.IO, our software platform, which uses AI and machine learning to continuously optimise feedstock mix, retention time, gas yield and bio-fertiliser quality in real time.

The result is a plant that learns, adapts and improves with every cycle. Fewer operator interventions. Higher energy yields. A more consistent biosolids output that meets New Zealand's evolving Grade A compliance standards.

Showing this technology at the Expo — stripped of branding overlays and carbon-credit monetisation diagrams, just the bare interior of the system — was a deliberate choice. We wanted visitors to see the engineering on its own terms: elegant, alive, and deeply informed by the natural world.

What's next

From here, our focus is squarely on closing the Nelson BRRP project financing and preparing for the Global Startup Awards Grand Finale in Malta in May, where ASL will represent Oceania in the Best Greentech Startup category. We will keep writing here — about the technology, the commercial model, our iwi partnerships, and the wider shift underway in how Aotearoa manages its organic residues.

If you were at the Cleantech Expo and we didn't get a chance to speak, please reach out. If you weren't, we'd love to tell you what we're building.

Alimentary Systems Limited · Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

 #Cleantech #CircularEconomy #Biogas #Biomethane #Biosolids #Biomimicry #NZCleantech