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First-of-its-kind clean-tech system treats dairy farm manure and sewage sludge

A Vancouver entrepreneur is helping to safeguard the world’s water quality by successfully commercializing a groundbreaking approach for treating dairy farm manure and sewage sludge, both of which are posing an urgent problem in the worldwide agricultural and wastewater treatment industries.

Excessive nutrient build-up in soil due to the common practice of spreading liquid manure is a huge problem facing dairy farmers, Srinivasan explained, because it leads to the contamination of surface and ground water, which poses a significant health hazard to humans. At the same time, municipal wastewater treatment plants around the world are facing multi-million-dollar investments in aging infrastructure in order to meet more stringent environmental regulations.

The breakthrough clean-tech system, being commercialized by Boost, solves both challenges by efficiently and cost-effectively breaking down solids and facilitates recovering nutrients and energy from organic slurries before they pose a problem. Called IMPACT, the technology is changing the way organic waste liquids are treated and handled, by applying microwave heating and oxidants to improve and shorten the overall treatment cycle. Developed in the UBC labs, Boost has now secured the worldwide exclusive licence for the technology and is moving forward with pilot implementation projects.

The first-of-its-kind innovation has earned Asha Srinivasan a prestigious award and $5,000 from Mitacs, a national, not-for-profit organization that partners companies, government and academia to promote Canadian research and training. In recognition of the ongoing success of her start-up and its work to address an important global issue, Srinivasan — a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and one of four co-founders of Vancouver-based Boost Environmental Systems — has been presented the Mitacs Global Impact Entrepreneur Award.

“Not only are we working to keep our water sources clean, we are also providing a sustainable sludge management solution that will reduce the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment plants and give dairy farmers a viable way to manage land application of manure without contaminating local water supplies,” Srinivasan said.

For example, dairy farms of all sizes can use IMPACT to remove excess nutrients from manure before it is applied to crops, alleviating the potential for surface and ground water contamination, she explains. Municipal wastewater treatment plants can add IMPACT as an extra step to their current systems, reducing the amount of sludge that needs to be processed and achieving more efficient bioenergy production without the need for costly infrastructure changes.