Clean water and sanitation Greening sewerage treatment plants

Project summary

The world's 7.8 billion people produce a lot of sewerage. Treating the material in safe, efficient sewerage treatment plants consumes large amounts of energy and water and produces potentially toxic by-products.

Professor Qilin Wang aims to change this by developing technology to turn sewerage treatment plants into carbon-neutral energy generators.

The technology under development uses the sewerage sludge and a potentially toxic unused by-product, free ammonia, to generate sustainable green energy turning the plants into zero energy, low-emissions processes.

Currently, free ammonia must be removed to avoid eutrophication in the discharge water body, but this new technology aims to harness the free ammonia to maximise energy recovery.

The technology is easy to implement, with no need for special equipment or inputs such as chemicals or external energy, making it potentially transferable to a wide variety of settings around the world.

This new technology could help dramatically reduce the energy inputs and chemical outputs of sewerage treatments plants world-wide to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Professor Qilin Wang won a 2020 Australian Museum Eureka Prize, the nation's highest-profile science awards, for his ground-breaking work on wastewater treatment.

For more information, read our article on harnessing the power of human waste.

Project timeframe

2017-2025

SDG targets addressed by this project

Clean water and sanitisation:

6.3 - By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.

6a - By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programs, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies.

 

 

Industry, innovation and infrastructure:

9.4 - By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities.

Back to SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation