Orangeville pilots “revolutionary” wastewater treatment

The small town of Orangeville in southwest Ontario is planning to pilot a new wastewater treatment process that eliminates biosolids and could produce electrical power to feed into the grid.

In January the town council agreed in principle to allow local firm Xogen Technologies to test its patented process on a continuous raw sewage flow at the Orangeville Pollution Control Plant.

The technology treats wastewater using an electrolytic process and produces a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen that can be used to generate energy through combustion or a fuel cell. It requires a reduced footprint compared to conventional treatment facilities. Xogen is developing the new process in a consortium with the University of Toronto, Newalta and others, and with government funding. It says the pilot tests are expected to run to 2011 and the results will be independently evaluated.

Xogen believes the technology has the potential “to revolutionize the wastewater treatment process.”