New Water Treatment System Wins Top Innovation Award, UK

Main Category: Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Article Date: 05 Mar 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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A new system that could help solve water recycling problems in urban areas and water shortages in developing countries has today won a £250,000 Brian Mercer Award for Innovation from the Royal Society. The wastewater treatment system will not only recycle waste but will also produce reusable water, enough energy to power itself, and will be smaller than traditional plants.

The Prize was presented at the annual Royal Society Fromlabstoriches' event. £250,000 was also awarded to a project that will look to develop carbon nanotubes for use in optical and photonics devices used in bio-medical instruments and other areas. The awards are given to encourage innovation in science and technology and promote its commercial application.

Sir Peter Williams, Vice-President of the Royal Society said; "Water is going to become an ever more scarce resource as global temperatures rise. It is also becoming more expensive to treat as energy costs go up. If this new system is successful it could radically change the way water is managed. Science may well hold the key to solving many of the challenges the world is facing but that will not happen if we do not invest in people and ideas. With the Brian Mercer Awards we are backing up our words with actions."

The Submerged Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor has been developed by Professor David Stuckey and a team at Imperial College London's Department of Chemical Engineering. Anaerobic processes reduce the need for energy required to aerate traditional approaches and also produce a methane rich biogas' that can be used for energy. This type of reactor uses submerged membranes to filter the waste water, and hence enables the bacteria to be kept within the reactor thereby producing a biologically safe effluent.

Professor Stuckey said; "This funding from the Royal Society will hopefully allow us to take our work from the laboratory out to the wider world. If we are successful, our system will offer significant benefits in terms of space which makes it particularly suited to urban areas. It will also provide more reusable water at a lower cost which makes it ideal for developing countries. And of course it also provides the means to power itself which makes it appealing for everyone."

The work of Dr Andrea Ferrari and a team at the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge was also rewarded. Their work in nanotube based polymer optoelectronics will seek to combine polymers and carbon nanotubes. This will have the benefit of reduced cost and greater flexibility of use over conventional inorganic semiconductors. The work is expected to have practical applications in optical communications, bio-medical instruments, chemical analysis, time resolved spectroscopy, electro-optical sampling, microscopy and surgery.

Dr Ferrari said: "Nanotechnology is one of the most exciting areas in modern science. The potential of substances such as carbon nanotubes is massive. The ability to manipulate the structure and composition at the nano-scale opens huge opportunities to create materials with superior performance for new products and devices. The UK has to ensure that it invests in the technology now so that we are not left behind."

The labs to riches event also saw the award of 7 £25,000 Brian Mercer Awards for Feasibility to projects including turning milk bottles into petrol and a scanner that indicates which women with breast cancer will benefit from expensive treatments such as Herceptin.

Royal Society