Scientific innovations for human problems [Wastewater treatment]. Organica. Beautiful wastewater treatment revolution
In order to live, all organisms all over the world need something to eat and something to excrete.
Human is not an exception.
What’s cool is that the waste from some organisms might serve as food for others (think of “food chains”).
That’s the basis of activated sludge process. It’s a traditional method of wastewater treatment with the help of microorganisms.
What you see below is actually a wastewater treatment plant (developed by Organica).
(source -https://www.organicawater.com/facility)
It’s very different from something like
i.e. traditional wastewater treatment plant, where microorganisms absorb our waste, then they get filtered, and we get relatively clean water.
These facilities usually occupy huge areas (sometimes with arable land) and must be located far away from residential areas (because they are quite unappealing with unpleasant odour).
And
more than 90% of global treatment costs are not actually going towards the treatment of the water, but rather in the sewer network.
source
That’s why Organica came up with an idea of integration of wastewater treatment facilities into residential areas by combining
Nature
Technology
Architecture
Organica started to function as a company building traditional wastewater treatment plants in 1998.
It introduced its innovation (Food Chain Reactor (FCR)) in 2007.
What you see on the first image of this post is just “the upper part of an iceberg”.
This part is visually-appealing.
Organica facility in Hainan Island (China) is located directly inside a traffic circle.
Drivers pass the Hainan Island facility daily, without realizing it is a wastewater treatment facility
[video above]
(source - video above)
The "magic" happens in the "lower part of an iceberg".
(source - https://www.organicawater.com/facility)
Organica drastically increased the area of habitat for organisms by providing plant roots and artificial root structures (“engineered supporting media” on the image).
This is similar to what happens with neocortex of our brains. It has deep grooves and ridges, which helps to increase the surface area greatly.
The root structures in turn provide an ideal habitat for a thriving ecosystem – both larger (2-4x greater active biomass per cubic meter of reactor volume) and more diverse (3-4x greater species diversity) than the biology found in typical conventional activated sludge based systems.
(source)
This helped to increase the diversity of organisms capable to process our waste a lot
substantial increase in the diversity of microorganisms present in the system (3000 species vs. 600-800 in Activated Sludge)
(source)
(source - video below)
Advantages of Organica solutions are:
1/ Up to 60% smaller physical footprint. Organica solutions just occupy less land. And they require less cost to be built (no need for huge sewer network).
(source - https://www.organicawater.com/components-of-our-facilities)
2/ Sludge production optimization. Organica creates kind of ecosystem inside its facilities which comprise Bacteria, Protozoa, Worms (Nematodes…), Mollusc, Arthropod (Crayfish), Plants, Fish.
This results
in up to 20% less excess sludge compared to other activated sludge-based solutions.
(source)
3/ Reduced “psychological” footprint
Facilities built by Organica look (and smell) like botanical gardens.
For more information go to https://www.organicawater.com/facility
Organica not only builds facilities from scratch. Existing wastewater treatment plants can be modernized by Organica as well.
Note that you can’t just buy ready-to-use facilities. Organica company specialists need to carefully analyse conditions of the specific place. And based on that information they design and build the facility specifically for that place. Those facilities are equipped with electronics which helps to automate their administration and keep them up and running 24/7/365.
By now Organica achievements are
More than 110 plants operating or under construction worldwide.
source
(source - https://www.organicawater.com/about-us)
(source - https://www.organicawater.com/about-us)
Have you ever seen/noticed wastewater treatment plants?
All images (without the license specified)/videos are used under the doctrine known in USA as "Fair Use" (similar doctrines are used in other countries). For more information visit the US Gov website.
References:
Other posts of this series
Scientific innovations for human problems. Introduction
Scientific innovations for human problems [Safety devices]. Aircraft ballistic parachutes
Nice!
Thanks
Posted using Partiko Android