Validating FilaChar Use in Wastewater Treatment
Carbogenics is an award-winning cleantech company based in Edinburgh. We produce functional bio-additives from organic waste such as secondary biomass and difficult to recycle paper waste. Our first patent-pending flagship product CreChar® enhances anaerobic digestion and wastewater treatment, and can also be used for soil amendment and carbon sequestration.
Founded in 2016, Carbogenics has grown to ten staff at its University of Edinburgh base, where it has access to world-class research and testing facilities through the University and its industrial partners. As the global issues of energy and food sustainability and security grow in importance, Carbogenics intends to play a key role in enabling a Net Zero Scotland and world.
At present, there is no environmentally sound upcycling solution to screening waste. ‘Screening Waste’ is generated from wastewater treatment (WWT) facilities and is removed from the influent during WWT; it is stored in skips and sent to landfill. This source of waste is increasing annually and causes significant challenges to the infrastructure and financial cost of WWT.
Landfills contribute to soil and water pollution, releasing greenhouse gases and posing a threat to ecosystems and human health through the accumulation of hazardous waste. Screening waste ‘fibre’ is not recycled due to quality and hygiene concerns in the paper industry. However, in our preliminary results, we have explored that using it to create a new carbon-based biochar is promising.
Carbogenics is a member of the Scottish Bio-technology cluster and we will upcycle this under-utilised biomass supply which is a win for communities and the WWT industry. FilaChar® is a patent-pending carbon-rich material called biochar made from organic wastes that can act as a carbon sink by sequestering three tonnes of carbon dioxide for every tonne of biochar. It aims to address issues in WWT such as Odour emissions, high energy demand for inefficient aeration of the biological treatment step, fluctuating pollutant removal performance, especially during peak loads and high costs for the disposal of screening waste and these issues increase the WWT operating costs by more than 5%. Our initial research shows that FilaChar® was able to remove pollutants and odours from wastewater, improve sewage sludge settling, and enhance the activated sludge process. FilaChar® production has a net negative carbon impact and can significantly reduce carbon emissions.
This project seeks to build upon this prior industrial biotech research and evaluate FilaChar’s® practical applications and effectiveness in improving WWT processes. We are partnering with Scottish Water to access relevant biomass supply and their Bo’ness testing facility to progress this work.
The project will conduct a comprehensive assessment of how to process the screening waste and transform it into FilaChar® at scale and evaluate its commercial viability. Subsequently, we will conduct a trial which will investigate FilaChar’s® efficiency in removing contaminants, leaching behaviour, and its impact on the wastewater treatment process. Our efforts will focus on working with relevant authorities to address legislative issues and gather data to substantiate our claims. We aim to establish a regulatory pathway for FilaChar®. Furthermore, we will conduct thorough desk-based research to identify potential future markets for FilaChar®.