METzero - Bringing the water sector towards Net-Zero using Microbial Electrochemical Technologies (METs)

METzero - 利用微生物电化学技术 (MET) 将水务行业带向净零

• 批准号: EP/X040356/1
• 负责人: Elizabeth Heidrich
• 金额: $ 134.88万
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX040356%2F1
• 关键词: METzero; Bringing; water; sector; towards

When water is wasted at the tap, we consider the water waste, but rarely the waste of energy gone into making this water potable, and almost never the wasted energy to treat the resulting 'waste' water. Yeti the UK the water industry accounts for around 3% of energy expenditure, and is estimated to be the fourth largest energy user. In the wastewater sector this is particularly incongruous: wastewater actually contains around 10 times more energy than is currently used to treat it.Wastewater treatment technologies have changes little in the last 100 years. Much of the infrastructure was built for much lower population levels, and 'treatment' was focused on the simply removing organic content down to a level acceptable to discharge into waterways. There has been a slight shift in recent years toward recovery of resource specifically with the implementation of anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge to recover energy, however this is a small bolt on solution which can only recover around 10% of the energy spent. No technologies exist at scale capable of intelligently, controllably and flexibly recovering a variety of resources, closing the loop on the circular economy of human water cycle. If discharge standards are to be guaranteed in the future where energy costs are likely to be higher and weather effects more problematic then new smarter biotechnologies will be needed. Furthermore there will be a need to remove and ideally recover a wide range of other pollutants from ammonia through to microplastics or trace metals. New technologies are needed for the water industry to become the responsible, responsive service needed to meet the Netzero pledges for 2030, and the environmental needs of the coming decades. Microbial electrochemical technologies are one such technology, which could help enable some of these changes, and lead to greater understanding of the biological processes involved in order to help develop further technologies. They are an anaerobic technology that works, like a battery, using waste organics as a fuel liberating electrons and protons. These electrons and protons can be the driving force for recovery processes either of energy directly through electrical current or indirectly through hydrogen gas, or useful chemicals such as caustic soda or ammonia. This research aims to robustly test and develop these technologies using large scale replicated reactors under realistic conditions. Within the lifetime of the grant we aim to develop a reactor capable of meeting the treatment needs of industry, thus having short term impact. We then aim to increase the value of this technology optimising and trialling the recovery of different resources. Furthermore, by conducting rigorous experiments, at large scale, and fully analysing the biological behaviour in these open systems and in particular during the start-up phase, we aim to establish a deep understanding of microbial community formation processes which will be applicable to other biotechnologies.

当水龙头处的水被浪费时，我们会考虑水的浪费，但很少会考虑将水制成饮用水所浪费的能源，而且几乎不会考虑处理由此产生的“废”水所浪费的能源。 Yeti 英国水务行业约占能源支出的 3%，估计是第四大能源用户。在废水处理领域，这一点尤其不协调：废水实际上含有的能量比目前用于处理废水的能量高出约 10 倍。废水处理技术在过去 100 年里几乎没有变化。许多基础设施是为低得多的人口水平而建造的，“处理”的重点是简单地将有机物含量降低到可以排放到水道中的可接受水平。近年来，资源回收方面出现了轻微的转变，特别是通过对污水污泥进行厌氧消化来回收能量，但这只是一个小补充解决方案，只能回收大约 10% 的能源消耗。目前还没有大规模的技术能够智能、可控、灵活地回收多种资源，形成人类水循环循环经济的闭环。如果要在未来能源成本可能更高、天气影响更成问题的情况下保证排放标准，那么将需要新的更智能的生物技术。此外，还需要去除并理想地回收从氨到微塑料或痕量金属的各种其他污染物。水务行业需要新技术，才能成为满足 2030 年 Netzero 承诺以及未来几十年的环境需求所需的负责任、响应迅速的服务。微生物电化学技术就是这样一种技术，它可以帮助实现其中一些变化，并导致人们更好地了解所涉及的生物过程，以帮助开发进一步的技术。它们是一种厌氧技术，其工作原理类似于电池，使用废弃有机物作为燃料，释放电子和质子。这些电子和质子可以作为直接通过电流或间接通过氢气或有用化学品（例如烧碱或氨）回收能量过程的驱动力。这项研究旨在在现实条件下使用大型复制反应堆来稳健地测试和开发这些技术。在赠款有效期内，我们的目标是开发一种能够满足工业处理需求的反应堆，从而产生短期影响。然后，我们的目标是提高该技术的价值，优化和尝试不同资源的回收。此外，通过大规模进行严格的实验，并充分分析这些开放系统中的生物行为，特别是在启动阶段，我们的目标是深入了解微生物群落的形成过程，这将适用于其他生物技术。