Cornell profuses plants to
ITHACA, NY Cornell
University researchers are using a
host of plant species to do what
conventional sewage treatment
facilites do - take pollutants out of
sewage - at much lower capital
investments and operating cost?.
Countless homes, industries, and
commercial establishments,
among other sources, all discharge
wastewater into municipal sewers,
creating untold amounts of sewage
sludge around the clock.
Cornell’s plant-based treatment
system is capable of doing as good
a job as the typical chemical
treatment plant does, says William
J. Jewell, an agricultural engineer
in the New York State College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences at
Cornell.
The system, in essence, relies on
plants grown in a modified
hydroponic system known as the
“nutrient, film technique” that
uses only sewage as a growing
medium for the plants, and the
EARLY ORDER DISCOUNTS
THE KEY TO QUALITY IS GSI
NEW LOW LEASING AS LOW AS 5 %
FARM FANS
AB-350A
520 bph
resulting plant roots efficiently
pick up all the pollutants from the
wastewater.
“Instead of building concrete
and-steel monsters at tremedous
costs, we can use this plant-based
treatment system, which could
cost half as much to do the same
job,” Jewell says.
Sewage contains many kinds of
organic and inorganic pollutants,
including nitrogen, phosphorus,
potassium, calcium, iron, sodium,
microorganisms, and heavy
metals such as cadmium, lead,
nickel, and copper.
The conventional treatment
plant removes these pollutants
from sewage before discharging
the treated wastewater into the
environment. It does this in a two
or three-step process. The first
step, called primary treatment,
removes much of the pollutants
from sewage by settling out
suspended materials. The second
step eliminates dissolved
Now In Effect
• i •
treat sewage
pollutants. Sludge resulting trom
this two-step process may require
further treatment.
The key component of Cornell’s
treatment system is living plants
grown in sewage, requiring no soil.
Plants are grown in water-tight
troughs somewhat similar to
gutters, and a thin “film” of
wastewater is directed to flow
through the plant roots.
Hence, Cornell’s Jewell calls his
system the “nutrient film
technique.” He says that plants
grow well in such a system
because sewage contains all the
major nutrients necessary for
plant growth. The result is massive
root systems that pick up all the
pollutants.
“The roots serve as a highly
efficient filter,” Jewell says.
“Better yet, they are renewable
because the plant continues to
grow.”
Based on a series of experiments
conducted over the past several
.1 4
SALES & SERVICE
TM NOT
L10N...
The Clanlflad
Livestock
Section
Ha* Beastly
Selections!
THINK AHEAD...
Read Futures Markets on Page 3.
WE SERVICE WHAT Wl
For... Corona, Comfort Gloi
Aladdin, Kerosun, Sanyo, Heat
Robeson, Crestline, Sun-Air
I %C|»'*’ Toyostove, Yuasa, Turco, Si
I* and More l
KEROSENE HEATE
• Ignitors
I COUPON “| • Catalytic
I Kerosene Heater i Deodorizers
I MAINTENANCE • Syphon Pumps
KITS . f Kerosene Cans
■ Reg, 14.95 | . K-l White 3
1 ONLY . Kerosene
*4.00 r* Scented 1 |
With This Coupon Kero-Clean
I expirps2/l/86 I Additive j
1 SALE 2 7*5.00!
LEOLA FIREPLACE & S
93 W. Main St., Leola, Pa. - Rt. 23 & T
M.W.iFri. 10-B.TSTIO
- ~
farmers Accredit
CORP I
9 EAST MAIN STREET, LITITZ. PA KuJI
717-626-4721
years at Cornell and other
locations, including one at a
sewage treatment facility in New
Hampshire, Jewell says that his
system is capable of producing
high quality water from domestic
sewage at rates faster than the
typical treatment plant.
The system works efficiently,
even in cold climates. In colder
areas, the plants can be grown in
low-cost plastic greenhouses.
Therefore, this system can be
adopted anywhere in the United
States for year-round operation.
For a community of 10,000
people, for example, a five-acre
system should be adequate, Jewell
estimates. A community of this
size produces one million gallons of
sewage per day.
Thus far, Jewell has ex
perimented with many kinds of
plants, such as wetland plants,
ornamentals, grasses, and even
food crops. Among the species
tested are cattails, bristly sedge,
woolgrass, soft rush, bulrush, reed
canary grass, phragmites, napier
grass, roses, chrysanthemums,
carnations, petunias, gernaiums,
cucumbers, tomatoes, millet, and
wheat. Whether the food crops
grown in this system are fit for
human consumption is yet to be
determined.
Jewell’s system consists of three
treatment sections, each requiring
different types of plants. The first
section, called “primary treat
ment,” is designed to trap most of
the suspended solids, followed by
the second section - “nutrient
conversion and recovery” - where
remaining suspended solids and
most of the pollutants are
removed. The third section, called
717)656-640)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 25,1956-C9
“water polishing,” puts the
finishing touches to the
wastewater by removing most of
the remaining pollutants.
“It takes only a few hours to turn
grossly polluted sewage into highly
purified water,” Jewell says. “The
quality of water produced by this
system exceeds that achieved by
conventional sewage treatment
facilities.”
Since plants use sunlight for
growth, among other
requirements, the Cornell system
relies on solar energy, and,
therefore, the system is an energy
efficient as well as cost-effective
alternative to the conventional
system, Jewell says.
In addition to turning
wastewater into clean water, the
nutrient film technique has several
other potentially important ap
plications. As Jewell sees it, plants
grown in this sytem can be har
vested periodically for use in
generating energy in the form of
methane, better known as natural
gas.
Since some ornamental crops
such as roses, carnations, and
chrysanthemums grow well in
such a system, these crops could
be produced on a large scale to be
marketed or used in public parks
and other recreational areas of a
community.
In areas such as New York
State’s Long Island, where
groundwater is contaminated with
certain pollutants, the Cornell
system could be used as a low-cost
water supply treatment facility.
Other possibilities, says Jewell,
include production of drinking
water from salt water through this
system, because plants give off
large amounts of moisture through
transpiration. All one has to do is
condense and collect the moisture
in a greenhouse. In this situation,
salt-tolerant plant species must be
used.
Jewell is planning to set up his
system at the Ithaca municipal
sewage treatment facility this
spring under the sponsorship of the
Gas Research Institute in Chicago
and the New York State Energy
Research and Development
Authority. To be tested for the next
two years, the system will handle
10,000 gallons of sewage per day.
Summing up his work, Cornell’s
Jewell says that the nutrient film
technique "represents a real
breakthrough in wastewater
treatment.”
We Specialize In
Aer*'
We Have Poles m Myerstown, PA 17067
stork 2S 30 35 445 Phone 717-866-7544
SELL
IT
BOTH
A
LANCASTER
FARMING
CLASSIFIED
&
SZOKing-St