Water creates energy, think about dams, tidal power, or even the steam in conventional power plants for a moment. And yet, energy can create (usable) water. Desalination plants and treatment facilities are all necessary to create healthy, potable water.
With this in mind, this week I want to talk a bit about water. It is tied so fundamentally into the energy system, that it does not do anyone justice to separate the two.
Water comes in all forms and sizes. However, for this article I want to touch upon not the fresh, clean water that enters most people’s taps… but rather I want to take a look at wastewater.
Wastewater is a true anomaly for the modern day engineer. It presents both a great burden and also immense opportunities. Let’s explore:
Wastewater comes in many different variations. There is the almost pure runoff from your showers and sinks, and there is the slightly more tainted effluent from the toilets. All of these variation on residential and municipal of wastewater pale in comparison to the industrial and mining runoffs, which are loaded with chemicals far beyond my pay grade.
To deal with all of this wastewater, we have created massive processing facilities that filter, disinfect, and decontaminate the wastewater. These facilities take up massive amounts of energy (from both the physical difficulties of pumping the water and the chemical/ biological necessities of cleaning it).
And yet, wastewater is rich in so many useful ingredients. We are living in a phosphorous dependent agricultural complex which is propped up by fertilizers to continue our amazingly high food production. It just so happens that we are running out of phosphorous. This is not an exaggeration, it is a truth.
With that in mind, there is a place we can easily find phosphorous. In both municipal waste and agricultural runoff, there is ample phosphorous. Yet, presently we allow for this phosphorous to fall into the ocean, unused and unaccounted for. Are any of you familiar with what is commonly known as a ‘red tide’? These algal blooms are triggered by the phosphorous runoff levels reaching extremes.
Why are we getting rid of this when we could be using it?
Well one reason is because our wastewater processing plants are already overburdened and underfunded. There is not much marketability in constructing a waste management facility as your growth is limited by governmental regulations.
Furthermore, most wastewater plants at present run off of combined sewer systems. This is a serious issue. Combined sewer systems are sewer units in municipalities in which the wastewater from use such as sinks and dishes is combined with the ambient water runoff (resulting from a storm). Both of the fluids mix in the sewers and thus both must be processed by a wastewater plant. This creates an extraordinarily high amount of excess processing that must be done during the wet seasons. As a consequence, many wastewater facilities are forced to simply declare defeat and allow for the ‘mixed sewage’ to be emitted into the environment, untreated (cough Hudson River).
Furthermore, wastewater has other resources that can and should be tapped into. For example, the wastewater from your shower is incredibly warm, why aren’t we using this heat in any viable way?
Until we realize wastewater as a potential source of resources, we will continue to treat it ineffectively, burdening both our system and tapping into our energy supplies.
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