(171d) Bio-Remediation of Waste Water Streams Using Soil Bio-Technology (SBT)

Urban, industrial and agricultural liquid waste streams are chief pollutants of planetary aqueous ecosystems as evidenced by large scale fish and marine die-offs reported the worldwide. Pollutants such as sewage and agricultural fertilizer runoffs have resulted in accelerated algal blooms depriving aquatic ecosystems essential dissolved oxygen. Acidic industrial waste streams have also resulted in leaching of heavy metals into such aquatic ecosystems. We show bio-remediation of such waste streams by a novel eco-friendly, energy efficient method called soil biotechnology (SBT). SBT is based on a bio-conversion process where fundamental reactions of nature, namely respiration, photosynthesis and mineral weathering, take place in a media housing micro- and macro-organisms which bring about the desired purification. SBT is an oxygen supplying biological engine, so the process can treat all types of waste water: domestic municipal and industrial with a salinity < 2500 mg/l. Due to its near neutral buffered pH of about 7.5 SBT also proves efficient in precipitation of toxic heavy metals. We show results from nearly 10 years of commercial operations of SBT plants delivering treatment solutions for a variety of waste streams such as sewage, restaurant waste and tobacco processing spent wash. Other applications include on-board sewage treatment and recovery for cruise ships, transportable solutions for remote locations and venues, oxygenation and waste removal for commercial fish farms. SBT technology is scalable and can be integrated with into the present urban landscapes via aesthetically pleasing gardenlike environments.