What is HydroBead?

As the population continues to increase, and emerging economies begin to flourish, there are increasing engineering challenges associated with the sustainable production of safe water and energy. The original paradigm of wastewater treatment to protect public health and improve environmental quality, has begun to shift and now includes sustainable energy production and resource recovery. To support this paradigm shift, the industry must actively develop, demonstrate and implement new technologies to maximize benefit, and reduce the cost and unintended environmental consequences of traditional energy hungry and space-consuming technologies.

For example, Wastewater treatment systems use 3% of the energy consumed in the U.S., largely due to aeration requirements as oxygen-hungry microorganisms convert carbon and ammonia to carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas in biological treatment systems. Ammonia removal is crucial, as it is toxic to mammals and causes a myriad of environmental problems if discharged to water bodies.