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Researchers from Zhen (Jason) He’s lab at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis use advanced technologies to recover valuable resources from wastewater. They recently demonstrated a promising pathway to treat solid sludge and recover usable phosphorus.
Whether wastewater is full of “waste” is a matter of perspective.
“Why is it waste?” asked Zhen (Jason) He, professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.
He
“It’s organic materials,” He said, and those can provide energy in a number of ways. Then there’s the other valuable resource in wastewater.
Water.
He’s lab has developed one system that recovers both, filtering wastewater while creating electricity. Results from bench-scale trials were published May 6 and featured as a front cover article in the journal Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.