Xogen Technologies Inc. is developing a technology for the treatment of wastewater, producing energy in the process.

This technology has the potential to revolutionize the industry’s approach to wastewater treatment by vastly reducing the footprint of treatment plants, eliminating most of the conventional unit processes, eliminating the production of biosolids and simultaneously producing a byproduct, oxyhydrogen gas, for reuse as an energy source.

Presently working on developing a bench scale continuous flow prototype module designed specifically to address the unique characteristics of municipal wastewater.

There are engineering hurdles which must be overcome to move the Xogen technology from where it is today (bench scale) to a full scale commercial process. Xogen’s technical staff is working with faculty and graduate students at the University of Toronto, Department of Electrical Engineering and Department of Materials Engineering, to address these.

Source: http://www.xogen.ca/technology.php

• Complete elimination of most of the infrastructure components of a conventional plant including the primary clarifier, aeration basin and air blowers, disinfection processes, sludge stabilization processes such as anaerobic digestion and final disposal or utilization of the stabilized sludge.
• Huge reduction in the footprint of the plant
• Complete elimination or significant reduction in sludge (biosolids) processing costs
• More stable process allowing for rapid start-up and insensitive to toxic shocks. Biological plants typically have a long start-up time because the microbes must be acclimatized to the feed (sewage) and increase in concentration to the point where acceptable treatment is achieved. In addition, since a biological system relies on microbes, any components in the incoming sewage can result in either killing the entire biomass or shocking it to the point where it takes a significant period of time, sometimes days, to recover its efficiency.
• The production of a significant energy source in the form of hydrogen which can be used to generate electrical energy for internal use or export. Xogen has powered various combustion devices with the hydrogen-oxygen gas liberated by the technology; such as a 1-kw Honda generator, under 90% load conditions.