BioLargo Inc said positive results from a municipal wastewater treatment pilot were presented at the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association's annual conference by its subsidiary, BioLargo Water, showing how its water treatment technology is a powerful yet energy- and cost-efficient solution for removing contaminants from wastewater.
BioLargo Water's lead research scientist Dr Laura Patterson-Fortin spoke at the National Water and Wastewater conference, held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on how the company’s advanced oxidation system (AOS) fits into global interest in water treatment technologies that can remove a broad spectrum of water contaminants, including legacy contaminants like bacteria and viruses.
BioLargo Water president Dr Richard Smith said the AOS is on the cutting edge of micropollutant treatment.
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“While their regulatory status in the US and Canada is still in the early stages, micropollutants are garnering the attention of regulators in Europe due to their potential to cause environmental damage and affect human health,” Smith said in a statement.
“Many of the leading companies in the water industry have identified micropollutants as a driver for future growth. We intend for the AOS to be ahead of the curve as an effective, energy-efficient option for micropollutant treatment as this market develops globally," Smith said.
A commercial-scale AOS unit has been operating continuously at a wastewater treatment plant pilot site at a municipality near Montreal, Quebec for the past 18 months, according to Westminster, California-based BioLargo.
The pilot tested whether the AOS could remove certain pharmaceutical micropollutants from the municipality's wastewater more effectively than the plant's current equipment, and verify that the AOS could operate in a real-world wastewater treatment plant over long periods of time, the company said.
The treatment plant – which doesn’t have equipment specifically designed for pharmaceutical removal – previously could only remove a portion of each of the targeted contaminants. When the AOS was added, the removal efficiency increased to between 84% and 100%, depending on the particular contaminant, according to BioLargo Water.
BioLargo Water said it developed the AOS to be the gold standard technology for tertiary wastewater treatment; the final step in sewage treatment. The AOS uses proprietary electro-oxidation technology to generate a blend of iodine molecules and hydroxyl radicals inside its reaction cell, resulting in rapid and energy-efficient water disinfection and breakdown of organic contaminants.
Patterson-Fortin presented the results alongside the company's academic partners from the Centre des Technologies de l'Eau (CTE) in Montreal, which oversaw the pilot project's operation and analyzed its results.
The results are important, due to a growing global population, aging sewage treatment infrastructure, and hard-to-treat wastewater contaminants like pharmaceuticals, identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as "contaminants of emerging concern,” according to the company.
Smith said BioLargo Water’s AOS would have a bright commercial future as governments around the world adopt new regulations even if its only function was to remove pharmaceuticals from wastewater.
“But the AOS does much more than that. It is also a highly effective, affordable, and energy-efficient water disinfection device that rivals UV, making it deliver exceptional value to wastewater treatment operators seeking to future-proof their operations," said Smith.
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