Wastewater Treatment System Recovers Electricity While Filtering

Whether wastewater is full of “waste” is a matter of perspective. “Why is it waste?” asks Zhen (Jason) He, professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.“It’s organic materials,” He says, and those can provide energy in a number of ways. Then there’s the other valuable resource in wastewater: Water.He’s lab has developed one system that recovers both, filtering wastewater while creating electricity. Results from bench-scale trials were published May 6 and featured as a front cover article in the journal Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.The waste materials