Nitrogen runoff in locations that rely almost exclusively on septic systems for wastewater management is causing water quality issues in local bodies of water, like ponds, lakes and watersheds. This excess nitrogen causes plant life to die, allows bacteria and algae to thrive and gives bodies of water a murky green discoloration. Orleans, Massachusetts has drafted several plans to solve this problem, but they keep getting voted down at town meetings due to high costs. The purpose of this project is to find and develop efficient and cost effective methods to augment these drafted plans and reduce costs to a level which meets public approval. The method we recommend is the use of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). These cells clean wastewater, remove between 60 and 90 percent of the nitrogen, use little energy to operate, and create some electricity in the process. This means when implemented in a centralized treatment plant, MFCs can significantly reduce the long term cost of a wastewater treatment project.

Creator

• De Lisle, Ian
• Higgins, Austin
• McKinney, Jason
• Sullivan, Brendan
• Ouellette, Kevin

Contributors

• Wulf, Sharon A.
• Rosbach, Derren

Subject

• The World's Water

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Language

• English

Identifier

• GPS1205

Year

• 2013

Date created

• 2013-01-01

Resource type

• Poster

Rights statement

• In Copyright

License

• Creative Commons BY-NC Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Last modified

• 2023-10-10