BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION IS COMMON DENOMINATOR IN INNOVATIVE SOLIDS HANDLING SOLUTIONS

In August, NEBRA hosted two Lunch & Learn webinars on innovative technologies for wastewater and solids/residuals treatment. The technologies – mechanical vapor recompression and super critical water oxidation -- are actually not new technologies but they are being applied in a new way to address current wastewater issues. Thanks to grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, both technologies have advanced to the commercial application stage. Both technologies address the need for cost-effective solutions to current problems including the amount and quality of biosolids we need to manage.

Sedron Technologies, a Janicki Company, sponsored a Lunch & Learn for NEBRA members on August 14th to showcase its VarcorTM system. VarcorTM uses mechanical vapor recompression to treat liquid waste streams with suspended or dissolved solids that range from less than 1% to 10% total solids. Janicki previously developed a process to clean wastewater in underdeveloped nations lacking the critical infrastructure to provide clean drinking water to its residents. Bill Gates infamously drank water generated by the Janicki Omniprocessor which you can read about in his blog.

The Varcor (trademark) technology separates the solid and liquid fractions of wsastewater through thermal evaporation and the resulting vapor is sent to a compressor, where it undergoes mechanical recompression. The compressed vapor is then used as the heat source for the evaporation process. The low boiling point constituents (such as ammonia) are concentrated separately through a patented distillation process. Through the use of mechanical vapor recompression, thin film drying, and the patented distillation process, the Varcor system is able to replace traditional dewatering systems, thermal evaporators, and side stream nutrient removal systems with one holistic solution. This system generates 90% dried Class A biosolids. It has a skid-based design and uses robotic welding fabrication perfected by Janicki which started out in the aerospace industry.

374Water, Inc. sponsored NEBRA’s August 28th Lunch & Learn. 374 Water is out of Durham, North Carolina and, in collaboration with Duke University researchers, developed a process that effectively treats PFAS-contaminated wastewater sludge and biosolids using a novel, patent-pending Super Critical Water Oxidation (SCWO) process. SCWO is an advanced oxidation method that can treat a wide range of organic wastes. It is a transformative technology that utilizes the unique properties of water above its critical point (374 °C and 221 bar). At these conditions and in the presence of oxygen, organics are rapidly converted to water, inert solids and gases, and reusable heat, with greater than 99% reduction in solids volume. This system is modular and prefabricated.

There were lots of great questions during 374Water’s webinar. NEBRA members were initially skeptical, seeing it as a reiteration of Zimpro's high pressure wet oxidation technology from the 1970s which had lots of maintenance issues. NEBRA members grilled the 374Water representatives and this was -- by far -- the most questions ever posted during a Lunch & Learn session. 374Water answered every question and followed up with a case study from a small-sized municipality in Maine where 374Water’s system demonstrated extremely high destruction/removal of PFAS from contaminated lime stabilized sludge. The technology seems to have potential and 374Water recently made a presentation to the Water Research Foundation’s Leaders Innovation Forum for Technology (LIFT) as well. During the NEBRA webinar, 374Water CEO Kobe Nagar described his company as “standing on the shoulders of giants” -- like Battelle, Betchel, Aquarden Technologies, Hydro Processing, and Super Water Solutions -- but with innovations to address today’s challenges.

NEBRA is rooting for both these companies and for all the innovators out there!