The engineering behind the Auric™ platform.

Auric Pulse™ is a continuously-stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) operating in the mesophilic temperature range (typically 36–40 °C). It is designed to handle the mixed agricultural feedstock available at a working farm — not a single, idealized substrate.

Substrate handling

Input streams at Node Zero include dairy and beef manure, food-processing residuals from regional partners, and seasonal crop residue (silage rejects, vegetable waste, occasional brewery and distillery spent grain). Substrate is screened, blended to target a volatile solids loading rate of ~3.5–4.0 kg VS/m³/day, and continuously fed.

Retention & conversion

• Hydraulic retention time (HRT): 22–28 days at design point
• Volatile solids destruction: 55–65% depending on feedstock mix
• Specific biogas yield: 0.30–0.45 m³ biogas / kg VS added
• Biogas composition (typical): 55–65% CH₄, 30–40% CO₂, < 200 ppm H₂S after on-skid scrubbing

Digestate handling

Effluent is mechanically separated into a fibrous solids stream (compostable, soil amendment) and a liquid stream that is rich in plant-available nitrogen and phosphorus. The liquid stream is routed into the EGrow Labs greenhouse loop as a nutrient source — closing the loop between waste, energy, and food.

Auric ExerGen™ is the combined heat and power unit — the physical Auric system. It runs on biogas from Pulse (or pipeline-quality methane during commissioning and feedstock gaps) and produces three commercially useful output streams in parallel.

Electrical output

• Nameplate: 50 kWe continuous (Auric C5-A-50)
• Electrical efficiency at design point: 33–36% (LHV basis)
• Grid synchronization: 480 V three-phase, IEEE 1547 compliant
• Modes: grid-parallel sale, on-site load following, RNG-priority (engine throttled)

Thermal recovery

Two heat recovery loops bring total system efficiency well above 80%.

• Jacket-water loop: ~55 kWth at 85–95 °C — used for digester heating and greenhouse hydronics
• Exhaust heat exchanger: ~65 kWth at higher grade — available for absorption-chilling, drying, or supplemental greenhouse climate control

CO₂ capture

The exhaust stream from biogas combustion is rich in CO₂ (~10–12% by volume after combustion). A polishing scrubber removes residual contaminants and the cleaned CO₂ is delivered to the greenhouse to enrich plant growth. CO₂ that would otherwise be vented becomes a yield input for the food side of the platform.

Aurixen OS™ is the unified operating system for an Auric node. It is the only piece of software that sees Pulse, ExerGen™, the greenhouse, the grid interconnect, and the markets the node operates in — at the same time.

Layered architecture

• Edge layer. On-site industrial controllers and a hardened compute node run the 1 Hz physical control loop. This layer keeps the node safe even with no network connectivity.
• Node layer. Per-site state, telemetry buffering, recipe execution, operator HMI. Speaks a single internal data model regardless of vendor hardware below it.
• Fleet layer. Multi-node aggregation. Performance dashboards, fleet alerts, software updates, the historical store that feeds Auric DT™ and Auric AI™.

Why a single OS

Operators of conventional bioenergy projects routinely run four separate vendor consoles plus a spreadsheet. The cost of this fragmentation is mis-coordinated subsystems and operators who can only manage one site each. Aurixen OS exists so a single operator can run multiple nodes from one pane of glass, with a single mental model.

Integration

• Standard protocols on the south side: Modbus TCP, OPC UA, BACnet for HVAC, IEC 61850 for grid intertie
• Open data model on the north side: a documented schema for telemetry, events, and economic state
• Authority retained at edge for safety-critical interlocks; recommendations from Auric AI are explainable and overridable

The greenhouse is where the platform closes the loop. Three byproducts from the bioenergy side — heat, CO₂, and nutrient-rich digestate — become three production inputs on the food side.

The three input loops

• Heat. Jacket-water hydronic feed conditions the greenhouse through the cold months, eliminating most fossil heating load.
• CO₂. Captured CO₂ from ExerGen exhaust is dosed into the greenhouse atmosphere on a daylight schedule, boosting photosynthetic rate and yield.
• Digestate. The liquid effluent from Pulse is metered into the aquaponic nutrient loop as a supplementary nitrogen source after pasteurization and buffering.

Greenhouse program

The Node Zero greenhouse operates under the EGrow Labs program. Initial production focuses on leafy greens and herbs with established aquaponic compatibility, with fish raised in the recirculating loop. Plant and fish stocking rates are governed by Aurixen OS based on real-time nutrient analysis and demand forecasts.