Waste water accounts for up to 4 per cent of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, a greenhouse gas which has almost 300 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide (CO2). According to Cranfield based Water Innovate, the problem is about to get worse as tougher nitrogen discharge controls increase the risk of N2O emissions from sewage plants. The company has recognised the issue and has developed a new low cost monitor, N-Tox® that will help to detect N2O emissions, thereby helping to prevent their release into the atmosphere.
Operators using N-Tox® will be able to track emissions levels of N2O which is released when too much ammonia remains in the treated water. In this way, the monitor helps to prevent the release of dangerous levels of ammonia into our waterways. In addition, the monitor will help operators to prevent or minimize the release of N2O emissions by adjusting the water treatment process.
Water Innovate spun out of Cranfield University’s School of Water Sciences in 2003. The faculty discovered that N2O is produced in wastewater treatment plants if its processes were operated inefficiently. Professor Tom Stephenson, an expert on waste water treatment, decided to build and patent a low cost device that would warn plant operators in good time that N2O was being released.
According to Professor Stephenson, N2O (more commonly known as laughing gas) is a serious matter, it's an important indicator of water pollution and associated fish kills. N-Tox® will not only help treatment plants to prevent pollution and avoid prosecution for doing so, but it will also help them to establish whether they have a damaging greenhouse gas problem.
Professor Stephenson hopes that his invention will make the public more aware that they will have to pay more for sewage treatment to protect our waterways and control greenhouse gases. In the future he believes that we will see new technologies such as urine separating toilets that will divert nitrogen away from treatment plants for beneficial use elsewhere.