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Help us identify the best technology for waste water treatment
Challenge Type: engineering
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$1,000
top 10
33
submissions
DONE
114 months

Sucroliq is a Mexico City-based company dedicated to refining liquid sugar. As part of the patented technology for liquid sugar refining, there are processes that generate wastewater streams that are difficult to treat. The wastewater is generated by regenerating ion exchange columns that are used to decolorize and demineralize raw cane sugar.

The basic parameters that determine whether wastewater can be discharged are biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) chemical oxygen demand (COD) and alkalinity levels. Click HERE to learn more about these indicators. Because of the BOD/COD ratio and high alkalinity level for Sucroliq wastewater, it has a low biodegradability, making it untreatable with traditional methods like using ozone or bacteria for biodegradation.

Deliverables

Please review the attached guidelines for waste water discharge. Next, review the attached excel spreadsheet which shows the BOD/COD and alkalinity levels of our untreated wastewater streams.

1) Propose an existing or novel wastewater treatment method with the capacity to treat streams generated by Sucroliq's process. Be sure to explain how your method will work, given our high BOD/COD and alkalinity levels.

2) Please reference any research/material that contributed to your solution.

Criteria: Do not recommend using ozone as a treatment method in your solution, since we already tested this and it was not effective.

    Submissions will be graded on the following criteria:
  • Meets Deliverables
  • Creativity
  • Clarity
Additional Materials:
Reward Tiers
5 Winners
will receive $150 each
5 Honorable Mentions
will receive $50 each
Leaderboard
$150.00 Brad Hancock Brigham Young University
$150.00 Casey Marchfeld University of Pittsburgh
$150.00 Zhenyu Tian University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
$150.00 Macy Divens University of Pittsburgh
$150.00 Suyash Dhoot Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
$50.00 Hamilton White Binghamton University, SUNY
$50.00 James Calixto Cornell University
$50.00 Brian Jun University of Pennsylvania
$50.00 jakobd Massachusetts Institute of Technology
$50.00 Hayden Tekerman University of Florida
Submission questions


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