Project tests way to make energy neutral wastewater treatment plant

Three per cent of all the energy used in the United States goes to powering wastewater treatment plants.

It's why the University of Guelph, GE Waters and McMaster University in Hamilton are looking into how to cut down on energy consumption of wastewater treatment plants, while making them more productive.

• Waterloo region's wastewater projects get $10.6M from federal, provincial governments
• Billions of litres of raw sewage, untreated waste water pouring into Canadian waterways

"The amount of energy to treat wastewater is quite significant," Glenn Vicevic, project management leader for GE Water, told CBC K-W's The Morning Edition on Wednesday.

"We are changing a wastewater treatment plant from a burden to society to a resource recovery factory where we liberate and generate clean water renewable energy and safe fertilizer for re-use."

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Research for the  $1.5 million project will be done at U of G's wastewater pilot facility, which uses wastewater streams from the municipal wastewater treatment plant. Researchers will test their ideas there and, in the future, do a demonstration of the project.

• City needs $900K per year to keep sewage out of Hamilton creeks

Vicevic said when they put the bacteria used to consume contaminants through a process that allows them to extract energy from it, they can produce renewable energy sources that can be turned into electricity.

It's a concept he believes could be the future of wastewater treatment plants as it doesn't require municipalities to build new facilities. Existing infrastructure can be retrofitted to accommodate the changes.

"The source of energy available in wastewater is two to four times the amount required to treat it," he said.

"We can make wastewater plants that are either energy neutral, that don't require any energy, or energy positive, and therefore adding more renewable energy to the grid and reducing our reliance on carbon sources."