Destiny Gwann- Blog

New plant tests energy-saving way to treat wastewater

By: Destiny Gwann 

            There are different ways to try and clear up the wastewar that is used on a daily. Water that has been used in the home, in a business, or as part of an industrial process. With that being said California Energy Commission gave two guys of the names Craig Criddle and Bill Mitch a $2 million grant that has ancient microorganism to try and work in the largest demonstration of a cheaper wastewater treatment process.  What they are doing is called the "anaerobic bacteria" and they have plant treatments in South Korea and Stanford campus.The group has broken ground on the demonstration plant, which is slated to come on line in fall 2018. It will eventually process 20,000 gallons of wastewater per day to provide validation and operating experience for what could become a full-scale plant capable of processing millions of gallons of wastewater per day. Aerobic vs. Anaerobic. Aerobic bacteria had to rely on oxygen to survive. Since they switched to anaerobic bacteria the cost went down a lot more then what they thought it would be said by Sebastien Tilmans who is the civil engineer who runs the Codiga Resource Recovery Center on the Stanford campus. In the end the outcome will be a lot better. They believe that in addition to saving space and money, the Stanford researchers said that their anaerobic process has yet another benefit which is the ability to digest pharmaceutical drugs and powerful household and industrial herbicides that have proven difficult for standard aerobic bacteria to digest.