US researchers develop energy-efficient wastewater treatment technology

Engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder have invented desalination technology that can eliminate salts and organic contaminants from wastewater obtained from oil and gas operations, and produce surplus energy along the process.

The technology is dependent on a microbe-powered battery.

Details of the research study have been published in the ‘Environmental Science Water Research & Technology’ journal.

Termed as ‘microbial capacitive desalination’, the system offers a single solution to two different problems by treating wastewater and producing energy.

CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher and lead author for the research paper Casey Forrestal said: "Instead of the traditional battery, which uses chemicals to generate the electrical current, we use microbes to generate an electrical current that can then be used for desalination."

The energy produced through the system can be used to run it on-site.

Every year, almost 21 billion barrels of wastewater is produced from oil and gas operations in US alone, the research added.

CU-Boulder associate professor of environmental and sustainability engineering and senior author of the paper Zhiyong Jason Ren said: "Right now oil and gas companies have to spend energy to treat the wastewater.

"We are able to treat it without energy consumption; rather we extract energy out of it."