WERF expands research on energy-neutral wastewater treatment plants

ALEXANDRIA, VA Feb. 15, 2013 -- The Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) recently issued its second award under the Energy Production and Efficiency research program leading towards energy neutral treatment facilities. The award went to the University of Michigan team and principal investigator Dr. Nancy Love. In 2001, Dr. Love was the recipient of the prestigious WERF Paul L. Busch Award for innovation in applied water quality research.

Building upon previous research into Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors (AnMBR) performed under WERF project U4R08, Dr. Love’s team will advance AnMBR as an option to provide a low energy treatment alternative for the wastewater sector to achieve net zero energy. The team will illustrate this by designing and operating a large-scale system and determining the ability of this process to meet secondary treatment standards. This study will also determine if this technology could potentially be paired with other processes to achieve a higher degree of nitrogen removal. Please contact Senior Program Director Lauren Fillmore at lfillmore (at) werf (dot) org for additional information.