Neighborhood-Scale Sewage Treatment Using Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO)
Staring in 2013, the Deshusses' lab worked on the development of a SCWO system to treat human waste and recover resources from the treated waste. The goal is to sanitize and recover the resources from the fecal waste of approximately 1000-6000 people, providing a neighborhood-scale solution. The initial prototype (1 ton/day capacity) was built at Duke. It fits into a 20 ft. shipping container and was tested and refined between 2015 and 2021.
The technology being employed to meet this challenge, supercritical water oxidation (SCWO), is promising because it works quickly and releases energy in the forms of hot water and steam from the treatment of human waste. It does not require prior dewatering or drying of fecal sludge, and it effectively eliminates all types of harmful organisms. SCWO technology has already been implemented in several research and commercial applications to treat waste products, including PCBs and PFAS, chemical weapons and sewage sludge. We believe that SCWO can help in solving some of the world’s sanitation challenges and provide resources recovery for a more sustainable future.