Treating wastewater with bacteria

‘We have gone from basic research into the bacteria to construction and deployment of the systems in seven years,’ said SHSU microbiologist Sabin Holland.

‘The bacteria we are working with occur naturally and can be found in a common handful of dirt. We have isolated a small subset of them, each having a specific function, to engineer a biofilm that is self-regulating and highly efficient at cleaning wastewater.’

Holland demonstrated the system’s effectiveness at several municipal and military sites by cleaning influent wastewater within 24 hours after setup to discharge levels that exceed standards established by the US Environmental Protection Agency for municipal wastewater.

‘The typical septic system or traditional waste-treatment process takes as long as 30 days and leaves as much as 40 to 50 per cent sludge,’ he said.

The technology is also scalable: ‘We can make the units for large-scale applications, or as small as a single home unit,’ Sabin added.