Embedded Files
Waste water treatment (WWT) increased health and life expectancy in post-Victorian times, but these advancements are under threat in an ever changing world with (i) increased population growth, (ii) changing population dynamics, (iii) climate change and the need for increased resilience, (iv) public health threats from water-borne pathogens and emerging infectious diseases, (v) the environmental burden of antimicrobial resistance, and (vi) the increased presence of emerging pollutants in societal and industrial wastes that need to be treated.
WWT directly contributes to 11 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and it is the largest global application of biotechnology. However, WWT is poorly understood, and it has failed to embed recent innovations in mechanistic biology, bioengineering, bioinformatics etc to drive process efficiency and increase societies resilience in health, energy and water security.
UK Water Industry: Facts and Figures
Directly employs 127,000 people; 86,200 people indirectly
Serves 65 million people and industry every day
Gross value added (GVA) to UK of £15 billion per annum
Provides 10,210M litres of drinking water per day
Utilises 3% of UK electricity demand
Accounts for 1% of the UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 5% of global biogenic GHG emissions
Treats >13bn litres of wastewater per day through >8300 Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs)
WWT is reliant on microorganisms, their functional capabilities and resilience to change
The water sector underpins UK competitiveness on the global stage. Industry is reliant on water intensive processes, and increased adoption of sustainable biotechnological solutions (e.g. biopharmaceuticals) are increasing this dependence on water. The water sector faces increased skills, regulatory, environmental and socio-economic pressures to meet industrial and domestic water demands and expectations.
Climate change poses a threat to the water sector that will impact environmental and public health. Given the pivotal role that WWT plays in society, and the role that biology plays in WWT, it is essential that we have the skill-base that understands how WWT works at a microbiological, biochemical, genomic and metagenomic level. Failure to embed these technical capabilities and address key skills gaps could comprise wider UK innovation and sustainable industrial growth.
PhD students on the Bio-Boost programme will have unique access to state of the art facilities. The University of York is home to the Centre of Excellence for Anaerobic Digestion (CEAD), a £1.2m facility to understand and optimise the anaerobic digestion (AD) of wastes . CEAD houses 60 five-litre anaerobic digesters at the UoY and two 1000L pilot scale anaerobic digesters at Yorkshire Water’s Naburn site. Biological Engineering: Wastewater Innovation at Scale (BE:WISe) is a £1.2M investment by UKRI-EPSRC, Northumbrian Water and the University of Newcastle in the largest pilot wastewater research facility in Europe. BE:WISe has full-scale and pilot level treatment systems for activated sludge, trickling filter beds, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket, microbial electrochemical fuel cells, and polishing tanks (for tertiary technology development). Newcastle University also has a bench-scale laboratory that accommodates up to 50 WWT reactors.
Bio-Boost will deliver:
Multidisciplinary scientists with the leadership, vision and entrepreneurial skills to drive UK growth and innovation
Innovative (eco)epidemiological solutions for improved health security and pandemic preparedness
Enhanced water water treatment performance to deliver Defra’s target for a non-toxic environment
Climate resilient water water treatment systems
Increased (bio)energy security to help achieve UK Net Zero targets
(Bio)circular solutions to support sustainable industrial growth and new revenue streams
Bio-Boost iDLA
Department of Environment and Geography
University of York
York
United Kingdom
chem-env-pgr@york.ac.uk
Page updated
Report abuse