Merah Mas Industrial Biotech
Industrial Engineer in Cape Town

It is a small company, working with companies in a variety of partnerships, ranging from contract work to Joint Ventures, to realise projects. So since she was about 12, Bernelle thought about going to live in the desert, and while she loves swimming and being in water, she realised fairly quickly that in this arid environment, water is not a solvent, but a resource, liquid gold. Trying to cut down on water use still meant you need water, so water reuse was top priority. Biology is the core of the company, and biology for a purpose. Hard core bioprocessing, but with no genetic modification and using non-sterile processes. This cuts down on energy costs, but makes the process more vulnerable to what happens upstream, and in turn the things downstream from this process are influenced by the process (for example the bacteria that we are using can go to the next step and do their thing there too, whether we want it or not). To allow for the best solution all the players in the vicinity need to talk to each other; there needs to be some sort of an industrial ecosystem. To take it a bit further, to properly manage our myriad ecosystems, we need to interact with them better. So this ecosystem also means our own individual ecologies: how we relate to our environment. On a more mundane front, we need to understand what we interact with through analysis and some sort of control, and ShackLabs is hacking that in a fun and open source way. This brings us to ASST: Adventure Sport and Science Tourism. A spiced up version of science education, it draws on what works in sport and tourism and brings that sexiness to science. And if sport wasn't part of this company, the members might all just get too fat. (of a person) clever, original, and inventive: he was ingenious enough to overcome the limited budget. The PhD is core to the company though, and her efforts, trials and tribulations are recorded here. This is a final edit of the article, corrected to the final print as far as possible. She first realized it was possible whilst doing her Masters in the United Kingdom in When waste matter enters the sewer system it flows through the various purification processes. For now, Bernelle aims to put it back into the water to further purify the same water that produced it. Some of the gas has been used in trial projects in South Africa to power stoves and industrial ovens and is also widely used around the world. The treated water is being used by large businesses which use water for production and manufacturing and to water golf courses. Verster and her friends have started a learn-on-the-run entrepreneurship program, showcasing good ideas and building business skills through real-world interdisciplinary projects. True to her vision, Verster wants to encourage entrepreneurs to sell the idea, and generate revenue without harming the environment. She wants to develop entrepreneurs who build ecosystems not empires; who work with the big picture and not in spite of it; who see nature as their model, measure and mentor.