Bioenergy from Wastewater

Bioenergy from wastewater
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BIOENERGY FROM WASTEWATER
Introduction
In order to build a sustainable society, reduction of reliance on fossil fuels is required. Waste disposition in the wrong places causes devastating impacts on cultures as well as ecosystems all over the world. Hence, a new practical approach has been taken to develop or enhance the wastewater treatment. The approach is usable in production of liquid bio fuels and electric power, as well as a revenue stream to offset the improvement of infrastructure (Klass, 1998). This approach is known as Photosynthentacally Oxygenated Waste-to-Energy Recovery-system (POWER).
How This Technology Works
There is a realization that there are particular types of algae that are efficient in removing nitrogen, phosphorous compounds and carbon, from agricultural and municipal wastewater. These algae are cultivated in the outdoors of the sewage water, in large and enclosed containers made of plastic, that is known as ‘closed photo bioreactors,’ which hinders evaporative water loss. Such kinds of photo bioreactors also hold of carbon dioxide, which is also algae’s nutrient. This results to fostering the production of high-density algae (Wall & Harwood & Demain, 2008).
Photo bioreactors also help to contain the potential destructive microbes and maintain wastewater smells. The main contributions of this process in addition to sun light are the algae, the wastewater and the carbon dioxide. The photo bioreactors then produce large quantities of biomass in a very short time, if given suitable strains of algae. The production of these photo bioreactors becomes a broth that is later isolated into biosolids, which move into the components of fuel production. Efficiency at every stage is mandatory in order to come up with a sustainable approach for the system (Angenent & Karim & Al-Dahhan & Wrenn & Domíguez-Espinosa, 2004).
How It Was Applied To Solve a Particular Problem
This technique was applied to solve the problem of treating wastewater without necessarily incurring the high effort of electricity, which is required by regular sewage treatment plants. The technique was as well applied to help the nutrients from the wastewater to apply photosynthesis in producing renewable surplus energy. Moreover, the POWER technique was used in offering maintainable technique for treating wastewater. It was used as a workable method of producing the electric energy and biofuels liquid. The Desert Southwest provided a favorable environment for the application of the technique. This is because of the algae production due to mild temperatures, abundant sunlight as well as wide-open locations for the facilities of alga cultivation. This has resulted to attraction of many states to the area.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the new technology relative to one other technology that is currently used to address the same problem?
The bes...