Looking for collaborators and possible coordinator for wastewater treatment project

BAM is a governmental institution in Germany. BGU is a university in Israel.

The current wastewater treatment approach is based on a biological process (activated sludge), usually coupled with a nitrification step. The sludge is separated, dewatered and incinerated or moved into a landfill while the treated effluents are discharged to watersheds, typically following a disinfection process. This treatment does not reuse the effluents for agriculture applications, releases water contaminated by nitrate and organic contaminations (e.g. PFAS), has an elevated energy demand resulting from the required aeration.

Therefore, we suggest developing and assessing a novel approach for wastewater treatment based on anaerobic membrane bioreactors. Membrane bioreactors couple biological wastewater treatment with membrane filtrations, resulting in a high quality effluent stream, fit for irrigation. The process is anaerobic and therefore has a lower energy demand while producing concentrated biosolids which could be further treated to produce highly plant-available fertilizers. The produced biogas can also be used for energy production.
While the process is highly efficient, there are challenges that should be addressed, therefore, we are looking for collaborators in these fields:
1. Development of membrane with low fouling for AnMBRs.
2. Assessing the microbial community developed in the reactors.
3. Development of gas harvesting technologies and separation (methane from CO2 and ammonia)
4. Development of fertilizers based on biosolids (rich in phosphate and nitrogen)
5. Perform life cycle assessment, techno economic and environmental assessment of such system.
6. Develop application to further treat the effluents.
7. Evaluate the ability of reusing the effluents for agriculture applications.

wastewater, nutrients, fertilizer

Avner and I looking for collaborators for our project and especially a partner who is interested and has the capacity to coordinate the project.