The development and optimisation of a three-stage, biological-based treatment system for the removal and recovery of phosphates and other emerging contaminants in various wastewater treatment applications.

Phosphorus & Phosphorus salts (P) are essential to all life on earth, and we have exploited this for enhancing crop yields for many years. However, it is more recently been highlighted that a significant amount of P enters our aquatic natural environments including our lakes and rivers in concentrations that can be detrimental to aquatic life. The elevated levels of P can come from two main sources, wastewater, and agricultural runoff.

The result can be catastrophic to nature by promoting harmful algal blooms. Currently, the use of P is a one-way system. We mine it, apply it to our crops, dose into our water distribution systems, and the vast majority is ends up in our rivers acting like natural drains leading this very important element to the ocean.

P is non-renewable. We cannot effectively generate it; therefore, we need solutions that help recover the phosphate we use to significantly increase the efficiency of this process and significantly decrease the environmental impact of P.

Like plants, microorganisms require P for survival, in natural systems P will be consumed for fuelling microbial growth. This project will utilise and enhance this natural process for the recovery of phosphate and reduce the demand on an electrolytic secondary stage of treatment. P will be captured by environmental microbial communities and stored as biomass within a structure know as biofilm.

We have found that when the conditions change from high P levels to Low P levels, there is a release of P from within these communities. This entire process is driven by natural microbes, and we hope to engineer this process to work with them to reduce the amount of wasted P. The release of P could then be reused to fertilise crops in a circular economy driven by nature and engineered using science and technology.