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Toxic black smoke hit Chathura Fernando before he even saw the flames.
Fernando, now a third-year engineering student, was visiting Sri Lanka, the homeland he left as a small child. As he walked through the Negombo district, he was overcome by the noxious odor of garbage burning in the streets.
“They don’t have the proper waste infrastructure there,” Fernando said. “Sometimes people burn their garbage openly, but not in a controlled way. It’s a very dirty process.”
Chathura Fernando (Submitted)
Having also witnessed the aftermath of the 2017 collapse of an unregulated dumping site at Meethotamulla, a landslide of garbage that killed 32 people, destroyed 140 houses and displaced hundreds in the Colombo District of Sri Lanka, Fernando felt compelled to act.
“I knew there had to be a better way to deal with all this waste. I had to do something,” he said.
Today, Fernando is the CEO of FDO Energy, and that “something” is now taking shape as the Clean Incinerator.
The trailer-mounted, portable waste-to-energy incineration and filtration system combusts waste in a controlled, clean process, extracting energy from that combustion, scrubbing the resulting emissions so nothing harmful is released into the atmosphere.
“This is not just about destroying waste. It’s about providing energy output as well. We’re killing two birds with one stone,” Fernando said.
The idea holds promise for countries worldwide struggling with waste management. His plan to develop scalable waste-to-energy systems has also attracted interest from local municipalities and waste producers across Ontario.
“Unlike traditional incinerators, our system is small-scale, cost-effective and scalable. This makes the Clean Incinerator accessible to municipalities, industrial clients and remote communities,” said Fernando.
Third-year engineering student Chathura Fernando, CEO of FDO Energy, works on his prototype of the Clean Incinerator, currently housed in University Machine Services in the Faculty of Engineering. (Jake Arts/Faculty of Engineering)
Crude beginnings
Fernando’s original idea was to create an incinerator for individual households. He first tested the concept as part of a team in a first-year engineering competition.
“We built it in my backyard,” he said, laughing as he described the rudimentary result of his team’s attempts. “It wasn’t very good. Pieces warped and the edges weren’t straight. We weren’t tradesmen, so the quality wasn’t there.”
But he learned a valuable lesson.
“You don’t have to do everything yourself,” he said. “It takes longer and is much harder.”
Since, he’s built his executive team, made up of friends he’s met at Western.
Fellow engineering student Seniru Perera is FDO’s chief technology officer, BMOS student Janindu Liyanaarachchi its chief financial officer and Supul Liyanaarachchi is legal affairs coordinator. And with support from mentors in the Faculty of Engineering and opportunities through the Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship, Fernando’s concept has evolved from a project to a promising business.
The core members of the FDO Energy team all met at Western. (L to R): Seniru Perera, chief technology officer, Chathura Fernando, chief executive officer, Supul Liyanaarachchi, legal affairs coordinator and Janindu Liyanaarachchi, chief financial officer. (Morrissette Entrepreneurship)
Building FDO Energy: From project to prototype to business
Key to Fernando’s current success is an in-house manufacturing partnership with University Machine Services (UMS), housed in the Faculty of Engineering.
“Establishing a partnership with UMS was a critical milestone,” he said. “They helped us a lot with the design phase, teaching us the processes on what we should use, how to weld and how to make things better. It was our main engineering pivot, where we went from trying to do everything ourselves, to getting things manufactured professionally.”
Primarily created to serve external industries, UMS project manager Cody Ruthman said expanding the unit’s mandate through a pilot project to include experiential learning has already benefited students like Fernando.
“Under our mentorship, we trained Chathura in industrial learning, gave him access to the industrial equipment he needed and helped him continue the development process,” said Ruthman.
Engineering student Chathura Fernando (left), CEO of FDO Energy, worked to develop the Clean Incinerator under the mentorship of Cody Ruthman, project manager at University Machine Services in the Faculty of Engineering. Ruthman taught Fernando hands-on skills, including welding and other processes throughout the design phase to manufacture a professional product. (Jake Arts/Faculty of Engineering)
Fernando also credits the Entrepreneurial Summer Incubator (ESI) program at Morrissette Entrepreneurship, where students are empowered to develop their entrepreneurial skills and mindset while working full-time on scaling their own ventures.
“The ESI program played a huge role in our early success,” Fernando said. “It was still a side project up until that point. We were doing things whenever we could without any sense of how to build the business and its marketability. It really provided a business foundation that allowed us to take it from a project and turn it into a business.”
Participating in the program also led to another major shift, pivoting their focus from a consumer household unit to a business-to-business model. Fernando was soon applying the skills he gained to identify customers and refine his pitch.
Third-year engineering student Chathura Fernando, CEO of FDO Energy, explains the concept behind the Clean Incinerator during the Ivey Business Plan competition. (Morrissette Entrepreneurship)
Earlier this year, the team publicly unveiled their first system at the Ivey Business Plan Competition, before winning the Hult Prize competition at Western and going on to place as one of the top eight national teams among Canada’s best 28 student startup teams.
FDO Energy has attracted support from the TechAlliance GROW Accelerator in London, Ont. and Altitude Accelerator in Brampton. In June they hope to secure more funding when they pitch their venture to investors at Western Angels’ Demo Day.
From sketching his early ideas in his dorm room to building a business, Fernando said the experience has been a journey of “learning, failing, innovating and growing.”
Remus Tutunea-Fatan (Christopher Kindratsky/Western Communications)
“I couldn’t have done it without the incredible support from Morrissette Entrepreneurship and the Western community.”
That includes mechanical and materials engineer professor Remus Tutunea-Fatan, Fernando’s mentor and technical advisor. Tutunea-Fatan said he watched Fernando develop focus, resilience and leadership as he grew his business from early concept into “a strong, team-driven effort with real momentum.”
“What distinguishes Chathura is not only his intelligence, ambition and drive, but also the remarkable journey behind this progress and how far he and his team have already brought the idea of developing a practical waste-to-energy solution aimed at reducing landfill dependence and supporting cleaner energy generation,” Tutunea-Fatan said.
“Chathura represents the very best of what our engineering education can foster: not just a strong graduate, but a future entrepreneurial leader with the potential to reshape the world we live in.”
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