Break the bad news bubble (Part 2) | Angus Hervey
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It's time for our periodic update of good news from Angus Hervey, founder
of Fix the News, an independent publication that reports stories of global
progre...
Schematic overview of the of blackwater treatment plant. Left: Section, and right: Basement Plan
Click image for larger view
Earlier this week I went to talk about this project to Dominique Hes who gave me some useful feedback, which included pointing me in a new direction in terms of treating and reusing waste.In earlier plans I had drawn a distributed system of blackwater treatment facilities, but Dominque pointed out that maintenance of several small scale plants would be a major problem, and I mean, you really don’t want your blackwater treatment system to go wrong!
For some more ideas Dominique referred me to a project called EVA Lanxmeer in the Netherlands which she has used as a case study in her recent paper: “Opportunities for Semi-Decentralised Water Reuse and Power Production in High Density Areas.”
EVA Lanxmeer is a small community in Culemborg. In some ways it’s comparable in size to our neighbourhood; there's about 250 homes with a small commercial/education area.
Their proposed treatment centre will treat the neighbourhood effluent, green household waste and some garden waste. The treatment process produces garden compost; clean water that can be used for anything except drinking water; and bio-gas that can be used for energy production and heating.
It is designed to not produce dust, odour or noise. And it’s estimated that the system as a whole will save 194 kg/home/yr of CO2 emissions. Not bad.
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Diagram mapping the process, inputs and outputs of the waste management plant
For more information download the PDF of the full paper by Dr. Ir. A. van Timmeren
This system is not completely detached from existing infrastructure for waste treatment, water and energy – it’s not completely self sufficient, but it promises a workable balance between localised management and production and the inefficient centralised systems we use now.This plant needs a sizeable space, but we do have the room to do this in our neighbourhood! The warehouse on the corner of Wellington and Hotham is currently vacant; developers were trying to turn it into apartments but the proposal appears to have either failed to make it through VCAT (our system for dealing with planning/development conflicts), or lost momentum in some other way.
The warehouse has a large floor area and is located in our proposed neighbourhood activity centre. It would be a great site for a environmentally sustainable six star (or equivalent) mixed use development. And this development could house our community black water treatment plant in its basement. Perfect.
Plan showing possible location of blackwater treatment facilityClick image for larger view
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