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Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are fast emerging as an option for several specific requirements. Now, a startup, JSP Enviro, aims to use this technology to process textile wastewater and additionally generate electricity that will render this exercise energy-efficient. Initiated by Suresh Paul Jones, the startup is in the process of joining the bioincubator at IIT Madras, where its other members Dr V.T Fidal Kumar and Dr Priyadharshini Mani will expand the research they have done so far. Now working at the biotechnology Department of IIT Madras with a prototype of about 200 litre capacity, the team plans to increase it to 1,000 litre capacity by 2020. “Though we have developed the technology for processing wastewater from the textile industry, it can be used with any other industrial wastewater,” says Dr. Mani. The team is also working on the restoration of a lake attached to the Integral Coach factory at Villivakkam in Chennai.