SBIR Phase II: Sanitation for the circular economy: Treating high strength wastewater for nutrient and water recovery

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目的更广泛影响在于将无处不在的水污染来源转变为可再生的肥料来源，同时促进现场处理和回收灰水的再利用。该技术解决方案旨在保护宝贵的饮用水供应，并减少对废水处理和肥料生产中不可再生资源的依赖。该项目不是将所有生活污水合并成一条稀释的溪流，而是将最大的营养物污染源——厕所废物——分离并回收。源分离的浴室装置（包括无水小便池、尿液转移厕所和真空冲水厕所）将废物通过专用管道输送到一个紧凑的建筑级处理器，该处理器将其转化为纯化的液体肥料。在法规要求土地所有者从废水中去除氮的敏感流域，以及由于中央废水处理设施已达到或超过其设计能力，市政当局正在补贴或强制进行分布式废水处理的城市环境中，这项技术可能会立即发挥作用。这项技术可以在安装和服务方面创造就业机会，减少污水处理厂的负荷，恢复水道，并生产用于农业的清洁的国内生产的肥料。这个SBIR二期项目的重点是开发一个建筑规模的、高强度的废水处理系统，与源分离浴室装置相结合，形成一个资源回收系统。通过四个阶段的处理，从进水废水中回收营养物质，其中包括：(1)酸化以尽量减少管道堵塞，(2)冷冻浓缩以减少体积，(3)巴氏杀菌以破坏病原体，(4)过滤以降低药物和其他有机化合物的浓度。这项研究项目的目标是发展这项技术，使其能够安装在建筑物中，并且能够以最小的能源投入，每天从600升废水中捕获90%以上的营养物质。这一目标将需要增加当前冷冻浓缩器的工作容量，优化处理列车中每个元件的能源使用，包装每个元件，使其耐用，易于安装，易于维护，并开发一个全自动控制系统。处理系统的每个组件都将进行单独测试，以证明可以从高强度废水中生产出一致、浓缩、消毒的肥料，同时减少建筑用水需求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project lies in transforming a ubiquitous source of water pollution into a renewable source of fertilizer, while facilitating onsite treatment and reuse of recycled greywater. This technological solution is intended to conserve precious drinking water supplies and reduce dependence on non-renewable resources for both wastewater treatment and fertilizer production. Rather than combining all domestic wastewater into one dilute stream, this project separates and recycles the largest source of nutrient pollution: toilet waste. Source-separating bathroom fixtures (including waterless urinals, urine-diverting toilets, and vacuum-flush toilets) direct the waste through dedicated plumbing to a compact building-scale processor, which converts it into a purified liquid fertilizer. This technology may have immediate utility in sensitive watersheds where regulations require landowners to remove nitrogen from wastewater, and in urban settings where municipalities are subsidizing or mandating distributed wastewater treatment because their central wastewater treatment facilities have reached or exceeded their design capacity. The technology may create jobs in installation and service, reduce loads on wastewater treatment plants, restore waterways, and yield clean, domestically-produced fertilizer for use in agriculture.This SBIR Phase II project focuses on developing a building-scale, high-strength, wastewater treatment system paired with source-separating bathroom fixtures to result in a resource recovery system. Nutrients are recovered from the influent wastewater through a four-stage treatment train that includes: (1) acidification to minimize pipe occlusion, (2) freeze concentration to reduce volume, (3) pasteurization to destroy pathogens, and (4) filtration to reduce the concentration of pharmaceuticals and other organic compounds. The objective of this research project is to develop this technology to the point where it can be installed in a building and is capable of capturing greater than 90% of nutrients from 600 liters of wastewater per day with minimal energy inputs. This goal will require increasing the working volume of the current freeze concentrator, optimizing the energy usage of each element in the treatment train, packaging each element so that they are durable, readily installable, and easily maintained, and developing a fully automated control system. Each element of the treatment train will be tested individually to demonstrate that a consistent, concentrated, sanitized fertilizer can be produced from high-strength wastewater while decreasing building water demand.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.