A NEW system to produce freshwater from wastewater has been developed by a professor of Missouri University of Science & Technology, US.

Dr Jianmin Wang, professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, produces through his invention freshwater that is cleaner than wastewater treated by traditional methods and uses less maintenance and energy. His technology can be retrofitted into existing wastewater treatment plants to produce water for irrigation.

According to Wang, nearly 1 per cent of energy in the US goes to wastewater treatment.

“Much of that energy is used to aerate the tanks where wastewater is treated. The energy is used to feed oxygen to the microorganisms that consume the waste, and traditionally wastewater treatment plants maintain an oxygen concentration of 2 mg per litre to feed the bugs in the tanks, which makes them happy,” according to a university release, which cites Wang.

THE STRATEGY

Wang believes that feeding the microorganisms at a lower concentrations such as 0.5 mg per litre would make them a little less happy but that they would live longer and enrich more while using 30 per cent less energy during oxygen infusion to produce the same results.