I-Corps: A Non-Chemical Green Process to Treat Wastewater

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to develop a one-step wastewater treatment technology to reduce energy requirements and the need for added chemicals. The global wastewater treatment market that is expected to cross $15 billion by 2025, driven by stringent government regulations. Key market segments include: breweries that use huge amounts of water (5-7 pints of fresh water per pint of beer produced); leachates from landfills that would contaminate fresh groundwater if not treated; and unconventional oil and gas drilling operations that used over 20 trillion gallons of fresh water for hydraulic fracturing in 2018. For on-site processing, whole wastewater treatment involves multiple steps including odor control, removal of macrobiotic solid matter (primary), anaerobic digestion that produces methane (secondary), removal of inorganics (tertiary), and addition of chlorine and sodium hypochlorite. The alternative is to discharge process water directly into the city sewer discharge system at a fee. The proposed project can achieve pure water extraction is one-step with small footprint. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a one-step wastewater treatment technology using a recyclable gas that reduces energy requirements and eliminates the need for added chemicals. The proof-of-concept study is completed in the laboratory, and an alpha-test unit is being built for field testing. Preliminary techno-economic analysis indicates that the process may reduce both the cost and space requirements by 70% over commercial processes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.