Newly patented technology invented by ANSTO scientist, Dr Tony Taylor, has won an ABC TV The New Inventors award today. The invention can cheaply make sewage and waste water clean enough to be reused and could cut water use by 60 per cent.
Dr Taylor, a microbiologist, has invented a revolutionary membrane bio-reactor that he describes as a simple arrangement of gills that uses bacteria to operate as a lung and a stomach.
The waste water treatment technology was featured on the ABC’s The New Inventors show on 4 October, winning the award for best invention on the episode.
“The system literally eats waste matter and breathes air, so is self perpetuating,” explained Dr Taylor. “The great thing about the technology is that, firstly, it’s cheap and, secondly, it can be used in a variety of sizes for houses, unit complexes or municipal treatment plants.
“At this stage, we have made a working model the size of a fridge freezer that can be used in a house to recycle waste, which I demonstrated on The New Inventors,” he said. “We are now looking for business partners to help develop and manufacture this size and bigger sizes in the future.”
Called a nano-particulate membrane bio-reactor (NMB) the secret of this technology is in the unique membrane, which is inexpensive and is patented by ANSTO.
“In most similar technologies the biomass (fungi and bacteria) this is grown in liquid which means oxygen levels are low and aeration is expensive,” explained Dr Taylor. “My membrane deals with these issues cheaply and effectively so the biomass can effectively do its job of eating all the rubbish and leaving the clean water behind.”
There are many other uses to this invention, including: antibiotics and food production; mining; bioremediation; and aquaculture. In the case of aquaculture, the sludge from the sewage treatment process, which collects at the bottom of the bio-reactor can be used to feed prawns and yabbies and the NMB delivers so much oxygen to the water that higher organisms such as worms and insects appear in the sludge within 24 hours. This makes for ideal fish food, although some may argue that they’d rather not know what they eat!
“This major technological development indicates the innovations ANSTO has to offer,” said Dr Taylor.
Published: 04/10/2006