Fast-Acting and Environmentally Friendly Adsorbent for Wastewater Treatment

Stringent removal of phosphorous and nitrogen for wastewater with fluctuating conditions are challenging and costly using current existing wastewater treatment technology, leading to unaffordable treatment costs to meet environmental discharge limits. The estimated market for the wastewater treatment industry is S$4.5 billion with an urgent requirement in the food, manufacturing and aquaculture industries. Therefore, there is a need for new technology to cost effectively and efficiently treat industrial wastewater.

This technology offer is a fast-acting, environmental friendly adsorbent that is able to effectively remove phosphorous, nitrogen and other organic pollutants from wastewater in 30 minutes. This regenerable adsorbent generates no secondary waste, is the fraction of the cost of current treatment methods (e.g. ozone etc.) and has almost negligible carbon footprint. Furthermore, this technology does not require pre-treatment of the wastewater unlike methods such as ion exchange membrane. Lastly, the adsorbent is based on natural clay which allows for potential upcycling intro fertilisers.

The technology owner is looking for potential partners and collaborators in food, manufacturing, aquaculture, and oil and gas industries with difficult to treat wastewater to do pilot projects together.

This technology offer is a fast-acting and regenerable adsorbent that is easy to deploy in the existing wastewater treatment facilities. Features and specifications of the technology are as follows:

• Able to treat phosphorus, ammonia, nitrogen and other organic pollutants
• Fast and efficient removal (e.g. Ammonia from 4.0 to 0.85 ppm in 30 minutes)
• No pre-treatment of wastewater needed
• Non-toxic, environmental friendly and regenerable
• Modular
• Low cost
• Sludgeless and zero solid waste
• Upcycling of spent adsorbent into fertilisers

The use of this technology are for industries that requries wastewater treatment. Potential applications include (but are not limited to):

• Wastewater with high amounts of phosphorus, ammonia, nitrogen and other organic pollutants (e.g. Food and manufacturing industry, oil and gas industry, aquaculture industry etc.)

This technology can be applied in the phosphorus and nitrogen removal water treatment market, specifically in the food manufacturing and aquaculture industry. With the growing demand of food protein globally, the demand for water treatment in the food manufacturing and aquaculture industry is increasing. In Asia-Pacific, the demand for water treatment in food manufacturing and aquaculture industries is estimated to be 18 billion m³/year (FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture). The estimated market size is around SGD$ 2.9 billion. In China, the market size is estimated to be around SGD$ 1.9 billion.

Overall wastewater treatment market is largely driven by government regulations. In China, since 2015, the local government has started enforcing more stringent wastewater discharge limits upon phosphorus, nitrogen and other pollutant. This drives high demand for efficient phosphrous and nitrogen removal technologies among local industrial companies. In aquaculture industry, this technology can serve as fast removal solution for ammonia nitrogen and other organic pollutants and contribute to green farming, water recirculation and vertical farming, etc. In Singapore, with the “30 by 30” vision proposed by Singapore Food Agency, the market demand will only increase exponentially.

• Enhanced removal of phosphorous, nitrogen and other organic pollutants
• Fast-acting
• Efficient
• Modular
• Low cost
• Reusable with potential for upcycling into fertilizer