Biofilter - the Earthworm and Microbes for Sanitation

From dirty sewage water to clean, odourless drinking water

When the entire Marathwada is struggling for water, in the heart of the MIDC in Aurangabad near the railway station, Applied Innovation & Technology Group, an entity combining five auto ancillary companies, is converting dirty sewage water into portable drinking water.

At Aurangabad railway station, when you cross the tracks to enter the MIDC, the first sight is the flowing gutter that has become a playground for stray dogs to bathe in and beat the heat. Forget drinking, the water is not even fit for sanitation. In fact, one would not even realise or imagine that the company serves their guests the same dirty water from the gutter to drink. The water that is served to guests is odourless and crystal clear, and you would find it difficult to believe that it's the treated sewage water that one is consuming.

The company collects the flowing dirty sewage water in a huge tank that passes through the company, a closed newspaper printing press that today has become a ground for converting sewage water to portable water. The 10,000-litre demo plant has been set up by Ram Bhogale, Chairman of AITG who also owns Nirlep Appliances. In a matter of eight hours, the plant can convert 10,000 litres of dirty water into drinking water. While the plant addresses the problem of water scarcity, it also helps in disposal of waste and sewage water.

Once the sewage water is collected it is put through a process of Biofilter. Here's how the process works: it uses the ability of the earthworm and beneficial microbes to break down organic water present in the waste water and transform it into harmless products. The water which is collected from the Biofilter process can be used directly for sanitation and for agriculture. "Even if this water is put to use it can resolve a lot of issue related to irrigation," says Bhogale.

However if the collected water is passed through a process of nano-filtration and chlorination, the 10,000 litres of water at the end of the process gives 7,000 litres of odourless and clean drinking water. While the other 3,000 litres of rejected water is liquid fertiliser used for agriculture, especially in drip irrigation.

The plant has a small testing lab to check the purity of water. Says Bhogale, "The water is as pure as Bisleri, Aquafina and Kinley mineral water." From 3,000 litres to 3 lakh litres water can be recycled and reused using the technology. Bhogale has spent Rs 12 lakh for the processing plant and an additional Rs 20 lakh for the testing laboratory. "On an average the cost per kilolitre of water comes around Rs 3 to Rs 4," says Bhogale.

Adds, Bhogale, "The total water used in Aurangabad is close to 180 million litres per day (MLD) and in villages surrounding about 22 MLD. While the sewage is close to 150 MLD. All over Marathwada one can safely assume more than 300 MLD sewage."

This means 70 per cent of the 300 MLD of sewage, 210 MLD will be clean water and the other 30 per cent would be concentrated liquid fertiliser having good amount of NPK , micro nutrients and dissolved oxygen. This would help in huge recycling of water. With talks of the next world war to be on back of water recycling of water is the need of the hour for the entire country. India constitutes 17 per cent of world population but only has 4 per cent of the total available water. Sad part is of the 4 per cent most of the water in glaciers, only 2.6 per cent of the total water is fresh water.

While the government has so far not shown interest, Jalna's Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), an NGO aided by the Central government, is setting up one lakh litre of processing plant to treat sewage water and use for agriculture which has over 150 acre of land. The project that would cost Rs 1 crore has been partly funded by JNPT, which has given Rs 58 lakh as a part of its CSR activities. Let's hope others will also join the bandwagon

Source: Business Today

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Taxonomy

• Drinking Water Treatment
• Waste Water Treatments
• Purification
• Filtration
• Water sanitation