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.
Like you and me, microbes need some metals in their diet to stay healthy. The metals help the microbes fully "digest" food. After a good meal, the microbes that gain energy by chemically reducing nitrate release a harmless byproduct: nitrogen, the gas that makes up 78% of Earth's atmosphere.