Optimising decentralised low-cost wastewater infrastructure by managing the microbes
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Engineering
Abstract
Here we argue that decentralised and point of use water infrastructure and technologies are fundamental in delivering health and economic sustainability in rapidly growing cities of the Global South. Further we advocate that research on decentralisation with developing world partners has the potential to catalyse radical change in unsustainable centralised western practices and thus will be mutually beneficial. There has been significant investment by charities and government agencies in developing novel wastewater treatment technologies and many are now close to market readiness. The Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand are piloting a suite of novel market-driven decentralised biological wastewater treatment technologies that were developed with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funding. The technologies work but their performance is variable. There is evidence that this is caused by variability in the microbial populations at the heart of the technologies, which are poorly understood. We will work with AIT to characterise and optimise the structure and function of the microbial treatment communities. The aim will be to mitigate the risk of failure by refining the AIT designs and offering rapid low-tech remediation strategies that can be deployed by customers should failures occur.
Planned Impact
To understand the benefits one must be aware of the nature of the problem. There have been significant improvements in the sanitation provision for the urban population in Asia over the last 20 years. In Thailand, 95% of people living in cities have access to some form of improved sanitation. However, whilst there are now 101 municipal wastewater treatment plants across the country, they serve only 1% of the total 7,775 municipalities. The vast majority of households have on-site sanitation in the form of crude cesspits or conventional septic tanks. In only 6% of cases does the effluent from these enter a networked sewer system and even then 90% of that sewage is disposed of unsafely. Thus the on-site sanitation primarily serves to settle out the sludge, which is intermittently collected and often dumped unsafely, and the effluent either soaks away into groundwater or is discharged directly into open watercourses. All of the circumstantial evidence points to this having an enormous effect on public health. Thailand's Ministry of public health figures show that morbidity from diarrhoea has doubled in the last 2 decades; mortality has diminished but primarily because of improvements in primary healthcare. So inadequate onsite sanitation is a problem, but the cost of providing sewerage and centralised wastewater treatment to 94% of the population is prohibitive. If we are to improve public health in Thailand, and beyond to the countries with poorer provision in Asia, then there is no alternative but to improve decentralised sanitation.
Improving sanitation will directly address the social and economic burdens of ill health. Episodes of diarrhoea can lead to loss of income, failure to attend school and increased expenditure on medicine. It has been estimated that a single episode of diarrhoea for one person can cost a family $6.61. Although the benefits are clear, successfully rolling out sanitation solutions has remained problematic. It is expensive for the state and successful business models for both small enterprise and big business are rare. AIT, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation have taken a market-based approach, seeking impact through sustainable, viable businesses targeting key market segments. The cess-to-fit and Solar septic tank innovated at AIT are designed to address key unmet needs within these segments and thus provide a competitive advantage in the market. They are therefore critical components for business success and impact delivery. Any loss of confidence in the technologies renders their whole model vulnerable. This is where the collaboration with Glasgow will help by improving their performance, making them more robust, and providing a better service to the customer. This will enhance the business proposition. Furthermore, by trialling the technologies in Scotland it opens the prospect of export from the Thailand to the Northern Europe; where there is a significant market for cheap and reliable decentralised water technologies
We have engaged water professionals and regulators as an advisory committee to guide the delivery of our program in a series of in-person team meetings to engage and critically reflect on progress towards our project milestones and to ensure our work is successful in breaking down the barriers to innovation in wastewater treatment
Improving sanitation will directly address the social and economic burdens of ill health. Episodes of diarrhoea can lead to loss of income, failure to attend school and increased expenditure on medicine. It has been estimated that a single episode of diarrhoea for one person can cost a family $6.61. Although the benefits are clear, successfully rolling out sanitation solutions has remained problematic. It is expensive for the state and successful business models for both small enterprise and big business are rare. AIT, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation have taken a market-based approach, seeking impact through sustainable, viable businesses targeting key market segments. The cess-to-fit and Solar septic tank innovated at AIT are designed to address key unmet needs within these segments and thus provide a competitive advantage in the market. They are therefore critical components for business success and impact delivery. Any loss of confidence in the technologies renders their whole model vulnerable. This is where the collaboration with Glasgow will help by improving their performance, making them more robust, and providing a better service to the customer. This will enhance the business proposition. Furthermore, by trialling the technologies in Scotland it opens the prospect of export from the Thailand to the Northern Europe; where there is a significant market for cheap and reliable decentralised water technologies
We have engaged water professionals and regulators as an advisory committee to guide the delivery of our program in a series of in-person team meetings to engage and critically reflect on progress towards our project milestones and to ensure our work is successful in breaking down the barriers to innovation in wastewater treatment
Publications
Zhan CH
(2019)
Controlling the Reactivity of the [P8 W48 O184 ]40- Inorganic Ring and Its Assembly into POMZite Inorganic Frameworks with Silver Ions.
in Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
Porwol L
(2020)
An Autonomous Chemical Robot Discovers the Rules of Inorganic Coordination Chemistry without Prior Knowledge.
in Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
Okonkwo V
(2023)
intI1 gene abundance from septic tanks in Thailand using validated intI1 primers.
in Applied and environmental microbiology
Heidrich ES
(2018)
Temperature, inocula and substrate: Contrasting electroactive consortia, diversity and performance in microbial fuel cells.
in Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Tsagkari E
(2018)
Turbulence accelerates the growth of drinking water biofilms.
in Bioprocess and biosystems engineering
Trego AC
(2021)
First proof of concept for full-scale, direct, low-temperature anaerobic treatment of municipal wastewater.
in Bioresource technology
Singh S
(2022)
Microbial community assembly and dynamics in Granular, Fixed-Biofilm and planktonic microbiomes valorizing Long-Chain fatty acids at 20 °C.
in Bioresource technology
Janusson E
(2019)
Synthesis of polyoxometalate clusters using carbohydrates as reducing agents leads to isomer-selection.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Dessì P
(2023)
Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions
in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology
Carboni M
(2022)
Autotrophic denitrification of nitrate rich wastewater in fluidized bed reactors using pyrite and elemental sulfur as electron donors
in Environmental Technology & Innovation
Yin J
(2022)
A droplet-based microfluidic approach to isolating functional bacteria from gut microbiota.
in Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology
Connelly S
(2017)
Bioreactor Scalability: Laboratory-Scale Bioreactor Design Influences Performance, Ecology, and Community Physiology in Expanded Granular Sludge Bed Bioreactors.
in Frontiers in microbiology
Ameer A
(2023)
Temporal stability and community assembly mechanisms in healthy broiler cecum
in Frontiers in Microbiology
Ijaz U
(2022)
Analysis of pit latrine microbiota reveals depth-related variation in composition, and key parameters and taxa associated with latrine fill-up rate
in Frontiers in Microbiology
Gul F
(2024)
Gut microbial ecology and exposome of a healthy Pakistani cohort
in Gut Pathogens
Mills S
(2023)
Process stability in expanded granular sludge bed bioreactors enhances resistance to organic load shocks
in Journal of Environmental Management
Koottatep T
(2020)
' Solar septic tank ': evaluation of innovative decentralized treatment of blackwater in developing countries
in Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development
Woodcock S
(2017)
Biofilm community succession: a neutral perspective.
in Microbiology (Reading, England)
Mills S
(2021)
A Distinct, Flocculent, Acidogenic Microbial Community Accompanies Methanogenic Granules in Anaerobic Digesters.
in Microbiology spectrum
Trego A
(2022)
Beyond Basic Diversity Estimates-Analytical Tools for Mechanistic Interpretations of Amplicon Sequencing Data.
in Microorganisms
Tsagkari E
(2022)
The role of shear dynamics in biofilm formation
in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
Mills S
(2022)
A meta-analysis of acetogenic and methanogenic microbiomes in microbial electrosynthesis.
in NPJ biofilms and microbiomes
Description | We have discovered that the activity of certain groups of microbes in household scale bioreactors can be enhanced to significantly increase the rate of degradation of wastewater. |
Exploitation Route | We are deploying the findings as part of an EPSRC programme grant to deliver off-grid water technologies to rural communities in the UK. |
Sectors | Environment |
Description | The solar septic tank technology that we are working on, with colleagues in Thailand, has been installed in a School in Bangalore India as part of a Scottish Government initiative. The Solar Septic tank technology is being deployed at a chain of gas stations in Thailand. The principals of alterting the microbial community in households scale bioreactors by adding low-grade heat is now being researched for Scottish Islands aas part of an EPSRC programme grant. |
First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
Sector | Environment |
Impact Types | Economic Policy & public services |
Title | CSD 1903343: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination |
Description | Related Article: Eric Janusson, Noël de Kler, Laia Vilà-Nadal, De-Liang Long, Leroy Cronin|2019|Chem.Commun.|55|5797|doi:10.1039/C9CC02361E |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/services/structure_request?id=doi:10.25505/fiz.icsd.cc21wl5q&sid=DataCite |
Title | CSD 1903344: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination |
Description | Related Article: Eric Janusson, Noël de Kler, Laia Vilà-Nadal, De-Liang Long, Leroy Cronin|2019|Chem.Commun.|55|5797|doi:10.1039/C9CC02361E |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/services/structure_request?id=doi:10.25505/fiz.icsd.cc21wl6r&sid=DataCite |
Description | Asian Institute of Technology. Thailand |
Organisation | Asian Institute of Technology |
Country | Thailand |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We provide molecular microbiology expertise |
Collaborator Contribution | AIT are field surveying septic tanks in Thailand and Cambodia to characterise the microbiology |
Impact | paper in press co-hosting a workshop in japan |
Start Year | 2017 |