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We are a senior design team focusing on changing the fate of phosphorus in the wastewater treatment process. Inspired by WSSC’s Piscataway Project goals of enhancing the region’s environmental and financial health, our first project as a team is to help them implement an organic phosphorus removal process. WSSC is creating a bioenergy plant that will take in waste streams from 5 wastewater facilities to create biogas as a renewable energy option in Maryland. The goal of removing phosphorus will help prevent struvite buildup in pipes, enhancing the biogas harvesting process to get a more usable product. Struvite is a solid chemical that forms and can clog pipes just like it can clog your kidneys as it is the same solid that causes kidney stones! The addition of struvite removal will reduce WSSC’s carbon footprint by up to 15%. This phosphorus will be precipitated out, diverting it from water sources and generating fertilizer for local use.

Team Members

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Project Mentors, Sponsors, and Partners

• Malcolm Taylor

• Ciaran Harman

• Hedy Alavi

• Ben Hobbs

• Alan Stone

• Paul Ferraro

Course Faculty

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Project Links

Additional Project Information

A special thanks to Malcolm’s Team: Chris Moline, Maia Tatinclaux, and Caroline Nguyen. Thank you also to Gerhard Forstner and Sanjeev Verma from Centrysis.  We also would like to thank our contacts ar NuReSys and Ostara for the help they gave us at the beginning of our project.