Learnings from 2 days at the WEF Innovations in Treatment Technology Conference (and a Micro Brewery)

Under the military jets and sunshine, this year’s WEF Innovations in Treatment Technology conference took place in Virginia Beach over two and half days just before the Memorial Day weekend. 

There were so many sessions that it was difficult to be able to see everything that I wanted and as there are no conference proceedings it is difficult remembering everything (especially at my age!), but I’ll try my best.  The highlights that I saw included the following.

Low Dissolved Operation of Activated Sludge – This was presented extensively last year and progress in understanding the impact on performance, resilience, settleability was discussed.   The secret seems to be a steady, step by step decrease in operating oxygen concentration over a long period to allow a change in microbial population suited to low DO.

What was very encouraging, was the reduction in nitrous oxide (N2O) production (a potent GHG) which could be related to the shift in nitrifying population towards Comammox (complete ammonia oxidation) organisms, a genre considered to have a low likelihood of N2O production in nitrification.  This is great news as this would represent both energy carbon reduction and process emissions reduction – a win-win.

Interesting to note that we saw other genres also adapting for example a reduction in simultaneous nitrification / denitrification as ordinary heterotrophs also seemed to be apt to the much lower DO concentrations.

At Microvi we are working on a low N2O project along with Cranfield University, Severn Trent Water and Jacobs to find alternative pathway organisms which reduce N2O emissions, so this demonstrates the feasibility of our approach (and a potential source of these slow growing organisms to test in our biocatalyst).

Partial Denitrification and Anammox continued to be evaluated and understood better to reduce chemical and energy costs in meeting stringent total nitrogen requirements.  HRSD is leading the way with the research work. 

Densification was again discussed in more detail, with a broader range of experiences highlighting the benefits (and pitfalls) of densification using hydrocodone’s to select for granules and hence better settling sludge.  I heard the odd comment about improved SVI but increased fines in the effluent (possibly due to lower sludge blankets in the clarifier reducing entrapment).   Other potential benefits include increasing nitrifier and PAO concentrations enhancing nutrient removal.

The mashup (and I love mashups) between MABR and Hydroclones was presented by Veolia which provides further process intensification by improving sludge settleability and increasing clarifier capacity.  This process is called ZeeDense and provides another good example of the supply chain collaborating B2B to provide customer benefits.  Microvi also have and continue to collaborate with other technology providers (e.g. Aqua Aerobic) to progress the industry.

I was slightly encouraged to see two sessions on nitrous oxide emissions, but this is still far short on what I believe should be the norm for water industry conferences.  I had a great lunchtime conversation with a Young Professional (YP) who strongly believed climate mitigation should be a primary focus of our industry’s attention and not a secondary consideration.  I whole heartedly agree, and I hope the other YPs are just as passionate in preventing further climate unravelling.

I missed more than I wanted to see but I was delighted to see Microvi highlighted in at least 4 presentations which included short cut nitrogen removal, a breakthrough in biostruvite recovery and as an advanced secondary process for nitrogen removal.

I did get a chance to visit the beach and enjoy the sunshine as well as sampling some interesting choices of beer from a bar with a wide range who did tasting boards....Ironically the Death by Powerpoint was a good one given the slide fest I'd just enjoyed during the conference! I did try the Peanut Butter Stout...but perhaps this was an innovation / mashup too far for me!

I look forward to next year where once again amazing things will be presented and discussed and a chance to catch up with the considerable talent residing in the US wastewater industry.  I would shout out individuals but there are just way too many (and I don’t want to miss anyone) so just a massive thankyou to WEF for organising this process engineer’s dream conference!