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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/P029329/1
Title: Optimising decentralised low-cost wastewater infrastructure by managing the microbes
Principal Investigator: Sloan, Professor WT
Other Investigators:
Koottatep, Dr T Reboud, Dr J Cronin, Professor L
Connelly, Dr S Ijaz, Dr U
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Scottish Water
Department: School of Engineering
Organisation: University of Glasgow
Scheme: GCRF (EPSRC)
Starts: 01 May 2017 Ends: 30 June 2021 Value (£): 1,191,997
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Water Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Water
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
17 Mar 2017 EPSRC GCRF 1 Meeting C - 17 March 2017 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Here we argue that decentralised and point of use water infrastructure and technologies are fundamental in delivering health and economic sustainability in rapidly growing cities of the Global South. Further we advocate that research on decentralisation with developing world partners has the potential to catalyse radical change in unsustainable centralised western practices and thus will be mutually beneficial. There has been significant investment by charities and government agencies in developing novel wastewater treatment technologies and many are now close to market readiness. The Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand are piloting a suite of novel market-driven decentralised biological wastewater treatment technologies that were developed with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funding. The technologies work but their performance is variable. There is evidence that this is caused by variability in the microbial populations at the heart of the technologies, which are poorly understood. We will work with AIT to characterise and optimise the structure and function of the microbial treatment communities. The aim will be to mitigate the risk of failure by refining the AIT designs and offering rapid low-tech remediation strategies that can be deployed by customers should failures occur.
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Organisation Website: http://www.gla.ac.uk