At the Asian Institute of Technology funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, our collaborators (led by Prof. Thammarat Koottatep) developed innovative sanitation technologies. Learn more here!

One system - the solar septic tank has the potential to replace conventional septic tanks for improved treatment outcomes (e.g. removing pollutants and pathogens before effluent is discharged to the environment). While we know that the systems work, the microbiology is poorly understood. On an EPSRC-funded grant led by Prof. Thammarat Koottatep (AIT) and Prof. William Sloan (University of Glasgow) - “Optimising decentralised low-cost wastewater infrastructure by managing the microbes”. We have been working with AIT to characterise the microbial populations within both solar and conventional septic tanks (within tank and effluent communities) to mitigate the risk of poor performance and identify key microbial species that indicate "complete biodegradation“ or “poor performance”. My role on the project has been in relation to knowledge exchange, experimental design and microbial analysis.

What we’ve found so far

• The Solar Septic Tank shows significantly better performance (treatment efficiency and effluent water quality) than a Conventional Tank with respect to many indictators of water quality (e.g. Total Solids, Biological and Chemical Oxygen Demands).

• More results coming soon - watch this space.