Release of Treated Wastewater From Hydraulic Fracturing Contaminates Lake

Date: July 12, 2017
Source: American Chemical Society
Summary: Hydraulic fracturing has enabled a domestic oil and gas boom in the US, but its rapid growth has raised questions about what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater that result. Researchers now report that treating the wastewater and releasing it into surface waters has led to the contamination of a Pennsylvania watershed with radioactive material and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Treating fracking wastewater and releasing it into surface waters has led to the contamination of a Pennsylvania watershed with radioactive material and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, report investigators. (Stock image)
Credit: © John / Fotolia

Hydraulic fracturing has enabled a domestic oil and gas boom in the U.S., but its rapid growth has raised questions about what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater that result. Researchers now report that treating the wastewater and releasing it into surface waters has led to the contamination of a Pennsylvania watershed with radioactive material and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The study appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.

In 2015, the unconventional oil and gas extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," accounted for more than one-half of oil production and two-thirds of gas production in America, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The method's market share is likely to increase even further. Although the technique has resulted in a shift away from coal, which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it produces large amounts of wastewater containing radioactive material, salts, metals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that could pose risks to the environment and human health. A Pennsylvania report estimates that in 2015, 10,000 unconventional oil and gas wells in the Marcellus Shale produced 1.7 billion gallons of wastewater. The facilities that collect the water provide only limited treatment before releasing it into surface waters. Bill Burgos and colleagues at Penn State, Colorado State and Dartmouth wanted to see what impact this strategy of treating and releasing fracking wastewater might be having.

The researchers sampled sediments and porewaters from a lake downstream from two facilities that treat fracking wastewater in Pennsylvania. Their analysis detected that peak concentrations of radium, alkaline earth metals, salts and organic chemicals all occurred in the same sediment layer. The two major classes of organic contaminants included nonylphenol ethoxylates, which are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carcinogens. The highest concentrations coincided with sediment layers deposited five to 10 years ago during a peak period of fracking wastewater disposal. Elevated levels of radium were also found as far as 12 miles downstream of the treatment plants. The researchers say that the potential risks associated with this contamination are unknown, but they suggest tighter regulations of wastewater disposal could help protect the environment and human health.

Story Source:
American Chemical Society. "Release of treated wastewater from hydraulic fracturing contaminates lake." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 July 2017. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170712110605.htm

Bacteria-Coated Nanofiber Electrodes Clean Pollutants in Wastewater

Date: June 28, 2017
Source: Cornell University
Summary: Researchers may have created an innovative, cost-competitive electrode material for cleaning pollutants in wastewater.

Cornell University materials scientists and bioelectrochemical engineers may have created an innovative, cost-competitive electrode material for cleaning pollutants in wastewater.

The researchers created electro-spun carbon nanofiber electrodes and coated them with a conductive polymer, called PEDOT, to compete with carbon cloth electrodes available on the market. When the PEDOT coating is applied, an electrically active layer of bacteria -- Geobacter sulfurreducens -- naturally grows to create electricity and transfer electrons to the novel electrode.

The conducting nanofibers create a favorable surface for this bacteria, which digests pollutants from the wastewater and produces electricity, according to the research.

"Electrodes are expensive to make now, and this material could bring the price of electrodes way down, making it easier to clean up polluted water," said co-lead author Juan Guzman, a doctoral candidate in the field of biological and environmental engineering. Under a microscope, the carbon nanofiber electrode resembles a kitchen scrubber.

The electrode was made by co-lead author Meryem Pehlivaner, currently a doctoral student at Northeastern University, with senior author Margaret Frey, professor of fiber science and an associate dean of the College of Human Ecology. Pehlivaner fabricated the carbon nanofibers via electrospinning and carbonization processes. After a few hours electrospinning, a thick nanofiber sheet -- visible to the naked eye -- emerges.

Pehlivaner reached out to Guzman and senior author Lars Angenent, professor of biological and environmental engineering, for collaboration in applying the carbon nanofiber electrodes to simultaneous wastewater treatment and production of electrical energy.

The customizable carbon nanofiber electrode was used for its high porosity, surface area and biocompatibility with the bacteria. By adhering PEDOT, the material gets an improved function, according to the researchers.

Guzman said wastewater treatment plants do not employ this method -- yet. On a large scale, the bacteria at the electrode could capture and degrade pollutants from the wastewater that flows by it. Such a technology can improve wastewater treatment by allowing systems to take up less land and increase throughput.

Concepts like this happen on campuses where faculty and students want to communicate and collaborate, Angenent said. "This defines radical collaboration," he said. "We have fiber scientists talking to environmental engineers, from two very different Cornell colleges, to create reality from an idea -- that was more or less a hunch -- that will make cleaning wastewater better and a little more inexpensive."

Story Source: Cornell University. "Bacteria-coated nanofiber electrodes clean pollutants in wastewater." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 June 2017. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170628144829.htm

Chance Find Has Big Implications for Water Treatment's Costs And Carbon Footprint

Date: March 24, 2017
Source: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Summary: A type of bacteria accidentally discovered during research could fundamentally reshape efforts to cut the huge amount of electricity consumed during wastewater clean-up. The discovery has upended a century of conventional thinking. The microorganisms -- 'comammox' (complete ammonia oxidizing) bacteria -- can completely turn ammonia into nitrates.

A type of bacteria accidentally discovered during research supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) could fundamentally re-shape efforts to cut the huge amount of electricity consumed during wastewater clean-up.

The discovery has upended a century of conventional thinking. The microorganisms -'comammox' (complete ammonia oxidising) bacteria -- can completely turn ammonia into nitrates. Traditionally, this vital step in removing nitrogen from wastewater has involved using two different microorganisms in a two-step approach: ammonia is oxidised into nitrites that are then oxidised into nitrates, which are turned into nitrogen gas and flared off harmlessly.

The outcome could be a big rethink regarding the energy-saving innovations developed over the last two to three decades in the field of nitrogen removal. Wastewater treatment is a huge consumer of electricity, accounting for 2-3 per cent of all power usage in western countries, and no less than 30 per cent of its energy bill results from the need to remove nitrogen. Most of the sector's efforts to reduce its energy use have focused on the two-microorganism approach.

The discovery was made by scientists working on the EPSRC-funded Healthy Drinking Water project, which is being led by the University of Glasgow and is due to publish its core findings later this year.

Dr Ameet Pinto has led the team, which has worked in collaboration with the University of Michigan in the US. He says: "This discovery took us completely by surprise. It's a superb example of how EPSRC support provides a secure platform for a can-do environment enabling researchers to achieve important spin-off breakthroughs in addition to the primary goals of their research."

Comammox was found in a drinking water system in the US. Other research groups have also detected it in wastewater treatment plants, in groundwater and even in aquaculture systems.

Dr Pinto says: "The discovery of a single microorganism capable of full nitrification will have a significant impact on our understanding of the nitrogen cycle and on efforts to manage nitrogen pollution. The potential is there for the wastewater treatment sector to exploit this breakthrough, which other teams in Europe have made in parallel with us.

"That would be an important step towards informing the development of robust approaches in terms of cutting costs and reducing carbon emissions associated with generating the huge amounts of electricity that the sector uses. It's a great story to highlight on World Water Day."

Story Source: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. "Chance find has big implications for water treatment's costs and carbon footprint." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 March 2017. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170324104906.htm

Wastewater Treatment Upgrades Result in Major Reduction of Intersex Fish

Date: January 10, 2017
Source: University of Waterloo
Summary: Upgrades to a wastewater treatment plant along Ontario's Grand River, led to a 70 per cent drop of fish that have both male and female characteristics within one year and a full recovery of the fish population within three years, according to researchers.

PhD candidate Patricija Marjan and Professor Mark Servos collect rainbow darter fish on the Grand River in Ontario.
Credit: University of Waterloo

Upgrades to a wastewater treatment plant along Ontario's Grand River led to a 70 per cent drop in fish that have both male and female characteristics within one year and a full recovery of the fish population within three years, according to researchers at the University of Waterloo.

The 10-year study, published in Environmental Science and Technology found that the microorganisms used to remove ammonia in the wastewater treatment process also reduced the levels of endocrine disrupters in the water, which caused the intersex occurrences in fish to dramatically decline.

"Having long-term data of the fish population, before and after the wastewater treatment upgrades makes this a truly unique study," said Mark Servos, Canada Research Chair in Water Quality Protection in Waterloo's Department of Biology. "The changes to Kitchener's wastewater treatment system have had a much larger positive impact then we had anticipated."

In 2007, Servos started tracking the number of intersex male rainbow darter fish in the Grand River. Intersex fish are a result of exposure to natural and synthetic hormones in the water, which cause male fish to grow eggs in their testes. At one point Servos noted the rate of intersex changes in the Grand River was one of the highest in the world.

In 2012, the Region of Waterloo upgraded the Kitchener Wastewater Treatment Plant and changed the aeration tank to reduce toxic ammonia. Within one year the proportion of intersex males dropped from 100 per cent in some areas to 29 per cent. By the end of three years, the numbers dropped below the upstream levels of less than 10 per cent.

"Rainbow darters are the Grand River's canary in the coal mine," said Servos, also a member of the Water Institute at Waterloo. "They're extremely sensitive to the concentration of estrogens and other hormone disrupters in the water. Still, we didn't expect them to recover so quickly."

Endocrine disruption in water systems is a worldwide phenomenon. Estrogen in birth control pills and other chemicals that mimic natural hormones are known to impact fish health in trace amounts as low as one part per trillion, far below what conventional wastewater treatment can typically remove.

"In Europe, water treatment engineers have been turning to extremely expensive tertiary treatments to meet regulatory standards," said Servos. "Kitchener's example shows what can be done with currently available technology."

The Grand River watershed in southern Ontario, is the largest watershed that drains into Lake Erie. The area has a growing population of nearly one million people.

Story Source:
University of Waterloo. "Wastewater treatment upgrades result in major reduction of intersex fish." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 January 2017. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170110151418.htm.

Journal Reference:
Keegan A Hicks, Meghan LM Fuzzen, Emily K. McCann, Maricor J Arlos, Leslie M. Bragg, Sonya Kleywegt, Gerald R Tetreault, Mark E McMaster, Mark R. Servos. Reduction of intersex in a wild fish population in response to major municipal wastewater treatment plant upgrades. Environmental Science & Technology, 2016; DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b05370

Fracking Wastewater is Mostly Brines, Not Human-Made Fracking Fluids

Date: October 17, 2016
Source: Duke University
Summary: Human-made chemical-laden fracking fluids make up less than 8 percent of wastewater being produced by fracked wells; more than 92% of it is naturally occurring brines, which carry their own risks but may have beneficial re-uses, say investigators.

Naturally occurring brines, not human-made fracking fluids, account for most of the wastewater coming from hydraulically fractured unconventional oil and gas wells, a new Duke University study finds.

"Much of the public fear about fracking has centered on the chemical-laden fracking fluids -- which are injected into wells at the start of production -- and the potential harm they could cause if they spill or are disposed of improperly into the environment," said Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

"Our new analysis, however, shows that these fluids only account for between 4 and 8 percent of wastewater being generated over the productive lifetime of fracked wells in the major U.S. unconventional oil and gas basins," Vengosh said. "Most of the fracking fluids injected into these wells do not return to the surface; they are retained in the shale deep underground.

"This means that the probability of having environmental impacts from the human-made chemicals in fracking fluids is low, unless a direct spill of the chemicals occurs before the actual fracking," he said.

More than 92 percent of the flowback and produced water -- or wastewater -- coming from the wells is derived from naturally occurring brines that are extracted along with the gas and oil.

These brines carry their own risks, Vengosh stressed. They contain varying levels of salts, heavy metals and naturally occurring radioactive elements, and their sheer volume makes disposing of them a challenge.

"But with proper treatment, they potentially could have beneficial reuses," he said, "especially out West, where our study shows most brines being produced by fracked wells are much less saline than those in the East. These Western brines, which are similar in salinity to sea water, could possibly be treated and re-used for agricultural irrigation or other useful purposes, especially in areas where freshwater is scarce and drought is persistent."

The Duke team published its findings Oct. 14 in the peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment.

The researchers used three statistical techniques to quantify the volume of wastewater generated from unconventional oil and gas wells in six basins nationwide: the Bakken formation in North Dakota; the Marcellus formation in Pennsylvania; the Barnett and Eagle Ford formations in Texas; the Haynesville formation in Arkansas, Louisiana and East Texas; and the Niobrara field in Colorado and Wyoming.

Using multiple statistical techniques "helped us more accurately account for changes in each well's wastewater volume and salinity over time, and provide a more complete overview of the differences from region to region," said Andrew J. Kondash, a doctoral student in Vengosh's lab at Duke's Nicholas School, who led the study.

"This makes our findings much more useful, not just for scientists but for industry and regulatory agencies as well," he said.

Among other findings, the new study shows that the median volume of wastewater produced by an unconventional oil or gas well ranges from 1.7 to 14.3 million liters per year over the first five to 10 years of production. The volume of produced water coming from these wells declines over time, while its salinity increases.

"The salt levels rise much faster than the volume declines, resulting in a high volume of saline wastewater during the first six months of production," Vengosh said. After that, the volume of wastewater produced by a well typically drops, along with its hydrocarbon output.

Elizabeth Albright, assistant professor of the practice of environmental science and policy methods at the Nicholas School, co-authored the study with Kondash and Vengosh.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Duke University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Duke University. "Fracking wastewater is mostly brines, not human-made fracking fluids." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 October 2016. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161017150835.htm

Brewery Wastewater Transformed into Energy Storage

Date: October 7, 2016
Source: University of Colorado at Boulder
Summary: Engineers have developed an innovative bio-manufacturing process that uses a biological organism cultivated in brewery wastewater to create the carbon-based materials needed to make energy storage cells. This unique pairing of breweries and batteries could set up a win-win opportunity by reducing expensive wastewater treatment costs for beer makers while providing manufacturers with a more cost-effective means of creating renewable, naturally-derived fuel cell technologies.

CU Boulder engineers have developed an innovative bio-manufacturing process that uses a biological organism cultivated in brewery wastewater to create the carbon-based materials needed to make energy storage cells.

This unique pairing of breweries and batteries could set up a win-win opportunity by reducing expensive wastewater treatment costs for beer makers while providing manufacturers with a more cost-effective means of creating renewable, naturally-derived fuel cell technologies.

"Breweries use about seven barrels of water for every barrel of beer produced," said Tyler Huggins, a graduate student in CU Boulder's Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and lead author of the new study. "And they can't just dump it into the sewer because it requires extra filtration."

The process of converting biological materials, or biomass, such as timber into carbon-based battery electrodes is currently used in some energy industry sectors. But, naturally-occurring biomass is inherently limited by its short supply, impact during extraction and intrinsic chemical makeup, rendering it expensive and difficult to optimize.

However, the CU Boulder researchers utilize the unsurpassed efficiency of biological systems to produce sophisticated structures and unique chemistries by cultivating a fast-growing fungus, Neurospora crassa, in the sugar-rich wastewater produced by a similarly fast-growing Colorado industry: breweries.

"The wastewater is ideal for our fungus to flourish in, so we are happy to take it," said Huggins.

By cultivating their feedstock in wastewater, the researchers were able to better dictate the fungus's chemical and physical processes from the start. They thereby created one of the most efficient naturally-derived lithium-ion battery electrodes known to date while cleaning the wastewater in the process.

The findings were published recently in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials & Interfaces.

If the process were applied on a large scale, breweries could potentially reduce their municipal wastewater costs significantly while manufacturers would gain access to a cost-effective incubating medium for advanced battery technology components.

"The novelty of our process is changing the manufacturing process from top-down to bottom-up," said Zhiyong Jason Ren, an associate professor in CU Boulder's Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and a co-author of the new study. "We're biodesigning the materials right from the start."

Huggins and study co-author Justin Whiteley, also of CU Boulder, have filed a patent on the process and created Emergy, a Boulder-based company aimed at commercializing the technology.

"We see large potential for scaling because there's nothing required in this process that isn't already available," said Huggins.

The researchers have partnered with Avery Brewing in Boulder in order to explore a larger pilot program for the technology. Huggins and Whiteley recently competed in the finals of a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored startup incubator competition at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois.

The research was funded by the Office of Naval Research and came as a result of a unique cross-disciplinary collaboration between Ren's lab in CU Boulder's Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering; Professor Se-Hee Lee's lab in CU Boulder's Department of Mechanical Engineering; and Justin Biffinger's lab at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

"This research speaks to the spirit of entrepreneurship at CU Boulder," said Ren, who plans to continue experimenting with the mechanisms and properties of the fungus growth within the wastewater. "It's great to see students succeeding and creating what has the potential to be a transformative technology. Energy storage represents a big opportunity for the state of Colorado and beyond."

Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

University of Colorado at Boulder. "Brewery wastewater transformed into energy storage." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 October 2016. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161007120518.htm.

Bacteria, Graphene and Nanotech Produce Usable Electricity From Wastewater

Check out the kitchen timer counting down in the gif above. There’s nothing special about it except for how it is being powered. The instrument isn’t equipped with batteries. In fact, its electricity comes from the vial behind it, where bacteria are eating organic matter in wastewater and producing electricity as a result.

It’s the first time that researchers have produced enough electricity for practical use from what are called microbial fuel cells. Scientists in China reported their breakthrough late last week in the journal Science Advances. Their work could one day help provide the huge amounts of power needed to treat wastewater, a process that currently consumes up to 5 percent of all the electricity produced in the U.S.

For a while now, researchers have been investigating the bacterium Shewanella oneidensis, which naturally targets heavy metal ions and other pollutants in wastewater as a source of energy. The bacterium reduces these materials as a way to power its own metabolism, meanwhile converting them into less harmful derivatives. Engineers have figured out how to tap S. oneidensis’s to start harvesting the current for human use, but so far they haven’t been able to get enough out of the reaction because of technological limitations to do anything useful.

Shenlong Zhao and colleagues focused their work not on the bacterium, but on the material part of the battery that collects the electrons the microbe harvests. They worked out a better electrode made of a three-dimensional graphene aerogel decorated with platinum nanoparticles. The aerogel’s complex pores allows the microbe to colonize throughout it, maximizing the density of cells. The platinum nanoparticles, meanwhile, improve the material’s conductivity while also creating an environment more amenable to the organism’s survival.

The power output is enough for two of the vial-sized microbial fuel cells to power the kitchen timer. Meanwhile, tests with the fuel cells running on wastewater retrieved from a Beijing treatment plant indicated that real-world municipal wastewater could be used to produce electricity. Zhao’s team are now setting their sights on scaling up their preliminary work into larger applications.

Top gif: Digital photo of microbial fuel cells driving a timer. The two single biofuel cells have been assembled in series and successfully run a timer, strongly exemplifying that the graphene aerogel/platinum nanoparticle anode enables the superior performance and the actual application potential. Video and caption courtesy of Zhao et al./Science Advances.

Source: http://txchnologist.com/post/133351599065/bacteria-graphene-and-nanotech-produce-usable

Wastewater to Irrigate, Fertilize and Generate Energy

Date: September 3, 2015
Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Summary: To meet the requirements of Asian cities, researchers are adapting an idea they have already applied in Germany for comprehensive water management: developing a concept for reducing water use, treating wastewater and extracting fertilizer for a strip of coastline in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang

Agricultural areas in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang: in the future, residents can use purified wastewater to water their crops.
Credit: © Fraunhofer IGB

To meet the requirements of Asian cities, researchers are adapting an idea they have already applied in Germany for comprehensive water management: They are developing a concept for reducing water use, treating wastewater and extracting fertilizer for a strip of coastline in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang.

Urbanization is in full swing. Particularly in Asia, solutions are needed for feeding the growing population, supplying water and energy, and cleverly recycling waste wherever possible. In Vietnam, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart have adapted a wastewater treatment concept they developed in the DEUS 21 project to support the supply of water, energy and fertilizer.

Under the auspices of the German Society for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ), the "Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: The Urban Nexus" project will now implement the innovative infrastructure along a strip of coastal land with some 200,000 residents in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang. Starting in the fall, 110 plots -- home to around 500 people -- are to be connected to a novel sewage network made up of vacuum pipes, which have a significantly smaller diameter than standard pipes. Wastewater is extracted with pumps, similar to the process used in trains and aircraft.

Until now, Da Nang's wastewater often flowed untreated into leaky ditches. Not only does this risk contaminating beaches, it also leaves untapped a valuable resource that the Fraunhofer researchers are now making accessible. Now for the first time, wastewater will be processed together with hotel kitchen waste; the resulting biogas will be used for cooking in hotel kitchens. Treated water will be used for urban agriculture -- meaning farmers will require less groundwater, reserves of which are at risk of becoming ever more saline as seawater is drawn in to replace the excessive volumes of freshwater being extracted during periods of drought. A further advantage is that nutrients found in the processed wastewater work as a natural fertilizer. So the novel system connects the pressing issues of supplying water, energy and food with little effort -- and the researchers achieve good results in each area. For example, with biogas: "At 45 liters per resident per day, our solution produces twice as much biogas as with traditional water treatment plants in Germany," says group manager Dr. Marius Mohr from the IGB.

Even the Wastewater Energy is Used

This concept sees wastewater purified biologically. "At the heart of the system are anaerobic bioreactors in which the organic component of wastewater ferments into biogas," Mohr explains. Bioreactors can also be combined with membrane filtration so that all larger particles, including the bacteria, remain inside the bioreactors. For cost reasons, this is not part of the initial plan for Da Nang.

The DEUS 21 concept was developed to maximize the recycling of wastewater and of the resources it contains. Not only can the biogas created in the anaerobic bioreactor be used for cooking, it can also be used to supply electricity and heat or to power vehicles. And because the wastewater remains relatively warm after processing, it is possible to draw additional thermal energy from it and supply this to households in cooler regions via a district heating network. "As another product of wastewater treatment nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizer can be won through a process of precipitation and ion exchange," Mohr explains.

The system could be implemented in many different regions, in particular where there is no sewer system or sewage treatment. "It's also suitable for export to areas with little water because it can be adapted to fit the needs of arid and semi-arid regions," Mohr adds.

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. "Wastewater to irrigate, fertilize and generate energy." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 September 2015. .

Engineers Purify Sea and Wastewater in 2.5 Minutes

Date: April 17, 2015
Source: Investigación y Desarrollo
Summary: A group of engineers have created technology to recover and purify, either seawater or wastewater from households, hotels, hospitals, commercial and industrial facilities, regardless of the content of pollutants and microorganisms in, incredibly, just 2.5 minutes, experts say.

Credit: Image courtesy of Investigación y Desarrollo

A group of Mexican engineers from the Jhostoblak Corporate created technology to recover and purify, either seawater or wastewater from households, hotels, hospitals, commercial and industrial facilities, regardless of the content of pollutants and microorganisms in, incredibly, just 2.5 minutes, researchers say.

The System PQUA, works with a mixture of dissociating elements, capable of separating and removing all contaminants, as well as organic and inorganic pollutants. "The methodology is founded on molecularly dissociating water pollutants to recover the minerals necessary and sufficient in order for the human body to function properly nourished," technical staff explained.

Notably, the engineers developed eight dissociating elements, and after extensive testing on different types of contaminated water, implemented a unique methodology that indicates what and how much of each element should be combined.

"During the purification process no gases, odors nor toxic elements that may damage or alter the environment, human health or quality of life are generated," said the Mexican firm.

The corporation has a pilot plant in their offices that was used to demonstrate the purification process, which uses gravity to save energy. We observed that the residual water in the container was pumped to reactor tank, where it received a dosing of the dissociating elements in predetermined amounts.

In this phase solid, organic and inorganic matter as well as heavy metals are removed by precipitation and gravity; and a sludge settles at the bottom of the reactor. The latter is removed and examined to determine if it is suitable to use as fertilizer or manufacture construction materials.

Subsequently, the water is conducted to a clarifier tank, to sediment the excess charge of dissolved elements; then the liquid reaches a filter to remove turbidity and is finally passed by polishing tank that eliminates odors, colors and flavors. The treated water is transported to a container where ozone is added to ensure its purity, and finally is ready to drink. Indeed, the resulting liquid is fresh, odorless and has a neutral taste.

"We have done over 50 tests on different types of wastewater and all have been certified and authorized by the laboratories of the Mexican Accreditation Agency (EMA). Also, the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), the College of Mexico and the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) have given their validation that the water treated with our technology meets the SSA NOM 127 standard, which indicates the parameters and quality characteristics for vital liquid to be used for human consumption," says the Corporate Jhostoblak.

Moreover, they report that this development is protected under trade secret in America and soon will get the same record in Switzerland. Its implementation in the market will depend on the needs of users and the issue of new laws regarding use, consumption and water discharge.

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Investigación y Desarrollo; nvestigación y Desarrollo. "Engineers purify sea and wastewater in 2.5 minutes." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 April 2015.

Electrodialysis Identified as Potential Way to Remove Salt from Fracking Waste Water

Fracking is a highly controversial and divisive issue. Proponents argue that it could be the biggest energy boom since the Arabian oil fields were opened almost 80 years ago, but this comes at a serious cost to the environment. Among the detrimental effects of the process is that the waste water it produces is over five times saltier than seawater, which is, to put it mildly, not good. A research team led by MIT that has found an economical way of removing salt from fracking waste water that promises to not only reduce pollution, but conserve water as well.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking uses water pressure to shatter oil shale formations, releasing oil and natural gas from deposits that would otherwise be uneconomical to exploit. One of the major problems with this process is that as the water is pumped through the oil shale, it picks up salt, and by the time it’s pumped back to the surface, it’s extremely salty – in the order of 192,000 parts per million (ppm). In contrast, seawater is only 35,000 ppm. This makes it not only too salty to be disposed of without reprocessing, but it’s also too salty to be reused in fracking.

The MIT research team sought to find the most cost effective means of desalinating fracking water. They found that electrodialysis is not only a promising way of cleaning up fracking waste water, but could also provide oil explorers with a closed-loop system that places less demand on local water supplies.

Diagram of the MIT desalinating process (Image: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT)

Electrodialysis is not a new technology. It was developed half a century ago and is currently used to desalinate brackish water and seawater, for small-scale drinking water plants, in food processing, greenhouses, hydroponics, and desalinating various chemicals.

In electrodialysis, a series of membranes divide streams of water of different salinity into stacks. An electric current on either side of the stack draws the sodium and chlorine ions of the salt across the membranes, leaving the water behind. The end result is a very salty stream of water, and a relatively pure stream.

According to MIT, electrodialysis has been overlooked as a way of treating fracking waste water until now because the process was thought to only be effective on water that wasn't of such high salinity. However, the team’s research found that electrodialysis is not only practical, but economically viable – not the least because water conducts electricity better as it gets saltier, therefore the electrodialysis process works better.

The team found that the key was to desalinate the water in stages and rather than making the water potable, it only had to be cleaned up enough to be pumped back into a fracking well and used again. This not only has the potential to reduce the costs, but also alleviate pressure on local water supplies and minimize the need for disposal of contaminated water.

In addition, the process described by MIT is extremely flexible, allowing engineers to "dial" the saline output. This is important, because reusing the water will mean finding the most effective level of salinity for fracking, which is a question still to be answered.

According to the team, there’s still a lot of work to be done before the process is practical. In addition to tweaking the electrodialysis design, laboratory work needs to be done on removing oil, gas, and mineral contaminants that may clog the membranes, and new equipment needs to be designed, built, and tested to apply the new technology.

Unique Waste Cleanup for Rural Areas Developed

Source: Washington State University
Summary: A unique method has been developed to use microbes buried in pond sediment to power waste cleanup in rural areas. The first microbe-powered, self-sustaining wastewater treatment system could lead to an inexpensive and quick way to clean up waste from large farming operations and rural sewage treatment plants while reducing pollution.

Washington State University researchers have developed a unique method to use microbes buried in pond sediment to power waste cleanup in rural areas.

The first microbe-powered, self-sustaining wastewater treatment system could lead to an inexpensive and quick way to clean up waste from large farming operations and rural sewage treatment plants while reducing pollution.

Professor Haluk Beyenal and graduate student Timothy Ewing in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture discuss the system in the online edition of Journal of Power Sources and have filed for a patent.

Cutting Greenhouse Gases

Traditionally, waste from dairy farms in rural areas is placed in a series of ponds to be eaten by bacteria, generating carbon dioxide and methane pollution, until the waste is safely treated. In urban areas with larger infrastructure, electrically powered aerators mix water in the ponds, allowing for the waste to be cleaned faster and with fewer harmful emissions.

As much as 5 percent of energy used in the U.S. goes for waste water treatment, said Beyenal. Most rural communities and farmers, meanwhile, can't afford the cleaner, electrically powered aerators.

Microbial fuel cells use biological reactions from microbes in water to create electricity. The WSU researchers developed a microbial fuel cell that does the work of the aerator, using only the power of microbes in the sewage lagoons to generate electricity.

The researchers created favorable conditions for growth of microbes that are able to naturally generate electrons as part of their metabolic processes. The microbes were able to successfully power aerators in the lab for more than a year, and the researchers are hoping to test a full-scale pilot for eventual commercialization.

Hope for Dairies

The researchers believe that the microbial fuel cell technology is on the cusp of providing useful power solutions for communities.

"Everyone is looking to improve dairies to keep them in business and to keep these family businesses going,'' said Ewing.

The technology could also be used in underdeveloped countries to more effectively clean polluted water: "This is the first step towards sustainable wastewater treatment,'' Ewing said.

Beyenal has been conducting research for several years on microbial fuel cells for low-power electronic devices, particularly for use in remote areas or underwater where using batteries is challenging. Last year, he and his graduate students used the microbes to power lights for a holiday tree.

Story Source: Washington State University. "Unique waste cleanup for rural areas developed." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 September 2014. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140918210136.htm.

Oklahoma Earthquakes Induced by Wastewater Injection by Disposal Wells, Study Finds

House damage in central Oklahoma from the magnitude 5.6 earthquake
on Nov. 6, 2011. Credit: Brian Sherrod, USGS

The dramatic increase in earthquakes in central Oklahoma since 2009 is likely attributable to subsurface wastewater injection at just a handful of disposal wells, finds a new study to be published in the journal Science on July 3, 2014.

The research team was led by Katie Keranen, professor of geophysics at Cornell University, who says Oklahoma earthquakes constitute nearly half of all central and eastern U.S. seismicity from 2008 to 2013, many occurring in areas of high-rate water disposal.

"Induced seismicity is one of the primary challenges for expanded shale gas and unconventional hydrocarbon development. Our results provide insight into the process by which the earthquakes are induced and suggest that adherence to standard best practices may substantially reduce the risk of inducing seismicity," said Keranen. "The best practices include avoiding wastewater disposal near major faults and the use of appropriate monitoring and mitigation strategies."

The study also concluded:

• Four of the highest-volume disposal wells in Oklahoma (~0.05% of wells) are capable of triggering ~20% of recent central U.S. earthquakes in a swarm covering nearly 2,000 square kilometers, as shown by analysis of modeled pore pressure increase at relocated earthquake hypocenters.
• Earthquakes are induced at distances over 30 km from the disposal wells. These distances are far beyond existing criteria of 5 km from the well for diagnosis of induced earthquakes.
• The area of increased pressure related to these wells continually expands, increasing the probability of encountering a larger fault and thus increasing the risk of triggering a higher-magnitude earthquake.

"Earthquake and subsurface pressure monitoring should be routinely conducted in regions of wastewater disposal and all data from those should be publicly accessible. This should also include detailed monitoring and reporting of pumping volumes and pressures," said Keranen. 'In many states the data are more difficult to obtain than for Oklahoma; databases should be standardized nationally. Independent quality assurance checks would increase confidence. "

Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Cornell University.

Journal Reference: K. M. Keranen, M. Weingarten, G. A. Abers, B. A. Bekins, and S. Ge. Sharp increase in central Oklahoma seismicity since 2008 induced by massive wastewater injection. Science, 3 July 2014 DOI: 10.1126/science.1255802

Wastewater That Cleans Itself Results in More Water, Less Sludge

The treatment process in progress, using chemicals naturally abundant in wastewater to clean itself.

Using wastewater to clean itself is the premise of new Australian technology that relies on the formation of compounds called hydrotalicites, and which results in less sludge than traditional water treatment with lime. In one test, the equivalent of 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools of wastewater were treated, with final sludge reductions of up to 90 percent.

Hydrotalicites are layered crystal structures of carbonates, magnesium, and aluminum, and importantly, they can trap impurities within themselves.

By chemically manipulating these elements "naturally" present in wastewater in high concentrations, researchers at CSIRO, Australia's science agency, caused the formation of these hydrotalicites. This process occurs as the concentration of magnesium and aluminum is altered and the pH of the water raised. As the crystals form, trapped within them are numerous other waste substances – in the test case, those included radium, rare earth elements, anions and transition metals.

The resulting mixture can be easily centrifuged to separate out the sludge, which there is less of due to its higher concentration and smaller volume of water mixed in. The now-concentrated sludge can be theoretically "mined" again to recover some of the metals and minerals from the mixture. The water can be more efficiently purified further, if needed, and reused by the facility.

The wastewater sludge that remains after treated water is removed from a hydrotalcite treatment.

With the reduction in volume of sludge comes greater ease and lower costs in transporting and disposing of it.

The process is being developed for licensing by Virtual Curtain Limited.

In the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W-9nGeDxt1c, Dr. Grant Douglas, a senior researcher at CSIRO, presents the process and benefits of using wastewater as a template to clean itself.

Source: CSIRO

Researcher Looks into Wastewater Zooplankton as Biofuel Feedstock

February 5, 2014 -- With dwindling non-renewable fuel sources creating an enormous energy challenge, the search is on to develop sustainable, renewable types of energy such as solar, wind and biofuel. One of the recent developments in this field comes from New York's Clarkson University, where new findings suggest that small organisms found in wastewater treatment lagoons could be used as biofuel feedstock.

The research was carried out by PhD student Stefanie Kring, who examined sunlit lagoons in Canton, New York during the summer. She found them to be rich in zooplankton, also found in other water bodies such as lakes and rivers, although algae was conspicuously absent.

Its absence was due to the fact that the plankton fed on algae, and had no predators in the lagoons, leading to their high concentration. These small organisms could be useful in the making of biofuel because when they feed, they accumulate oil in their bodies, and it's easier to extract that oil from them than it is from algae.

Besides biofuel, the study suggests that protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids could be harvested from zooplankton biomass. For that, lagoons would need to be redesigned to perform tasks other than wastewater treatment.

Further lifecycle and economic assessments are needed to determine the feasibility of harvesting zooplankton, but there is potential. "These zooplankton grow fast, they select algae from among all of the other particles present in the water, " said Kring. "Collecting zooplankton from water is much easier than collecting microscopic algae, due to their larger size."

Details of the research recently appeared in the journal Environmental Technology.

Source: Clarkson University.