Solar-powered wastewater treatment solutions for remote and developing communitiesPressure sewer technology is an effective alternative sewer system, particularly in areas where it’s difficult or too costly to build a traditional gravity sewer.

South East Water adopted pressure sewer for its Peninsula ECO project, where the Melbourne-based utility is installing 16,000 pressure sewer units to replace ageing and poorly maintained septic tanks on the Mornington Peninsula.

To monitor and control these pressure sewer units, South East Water developed OneBox® – the brains behind a pressure sewer unit. OneBox® enables utilities to track and control flow rates in near-real time using Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology.

Our early adopter customer Christchurch City Council have also adopted OneBox® powered pressure sewer. “If you’re going to have a pressure sewer system, why wouldn’t you have a smart one?” said Bridget O’Brien from Christchurch City Council.

But what about in places where power is unreliable, unaffordable or just simply unavailable?

Together with South East Water and Reedbed technology, we’ve successfully trialled a low energy wastewater collection and treatment solution for remote and developing communities – particularly where access to electricity is a challenge.

For more information, email us at info@iota.net.au or visit iota.net.au

These trials, conducted over 15 months at South East Water’s Boneo Water Recycling Plant, proved that using reedbed technology to treat sewage from a pressure sewer could produce the equivalent of Class C recycled water, even with varied quality of sewage inflow.

The trial system used vertical flow reedbed cells in three stages with a total area of 6–8 square metres. This low-energy reedbed technology mimics nature by using reeds to control flows of 600-800 litres of raw sewage fed through the cells each day.

“The reedbed wastewater treatment system, designed by CJ Arms, focuses on low-energy passive treatment techniques and low maintenance. The controlled flows from the OneBox® powered pressure sewer maximise efficiency and performance of the reedbed system and provides the perfect fit for a complete authority scale collection and treatment system.” Said CJ Arms Senior Water Sustainability Scientist Dr Peter Harbour.

A solar solutionIn a separate project in 2017/18, South East Water partnered with Parks Victoria to install OneBox®-powered pressure sewer systems at two toilet blocks in the Mornington Peninsula National Park where there was no electricity available.

With a potential electricity connection proving costly, South East Water installed solar-powered pressure sewer systems at the national park sites instead.

“By converting OneBox® controlled pressure sewer to a solar energy system, we’ve been able to take it off the energy-grid. Now with the potential to link this with Reedbed treatment we can look taking it off the sewer-grid.” Said South East Water Research and Development Manager Dr David Bergmann.

Putting it all togetherThese two projects confirm the suitability of reedbed technology and solar-powered pressure sewer systems to be combined to provide off-grid sewer and wastewater treatment systems in remote locations or developing communities, particularly where there’s no electricity or safe sanitation infrastructure.

This research means we’re able to take our innovative solutions further than we’ve been before, and we look forward to partnering with utilities to help develop their infrastructure and provide safe sanitation services for their communities.