Eco-friendly way of treating water

A team of researchers in Pondicherry University has developed an eco-friendly and low cost sewage treatment technology that
uses locally available resources to treat waste water with almost similar efficiency as that of conventional Sewage Treatment Plants
(STP).

The SHEFROL (sheet flow root level) system is a green technology which uses plant roots and microbial action to break down
sewage coming out from households. Developed by Prof S A Abbasi, Dr Tasneem Abbasi and Mohd Ashraf Bhat at Ponchicherry
University, the system claims to be the fastest plant based sewage treatment system currently available in the world. Attempts to
employ plants for treating wastewater have been made since several decades, but it was slow and inefficient. Our team headed by
Prof Abbasi
incorporated few innovative developments and made SHEFROL eco-friendly as well as highly efficient in treating the domestic
sewage, said Ashraf, research scholar at Centre for Pollution Control and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and
Technology, Pondicherry University, who is also doing a PhD on the subject. This technology does not use any chemical, and
leaves no footprint of its own. It is easy to install, maintain and operate, and even an illiterate person given little training can install
this system.

SHEFROL is a bioreactor that uses locally available aquatic plants to treat waste water. The system consists of pits and channels
that are covered by non-permeable sheets to stop seeping of grey water into ground. The sewage coming into the system gets
treated by specially selected aquatic plants that absorb nutrients, pathogens and micro organisms from water, said Ashraf.
Unlike earlier plant based systems, which had a depth of several feet and caused foul smell, the team kept the depth at 12 cm to
prevent any smelling and speed up the process. The SHEFROL is more than 20 times quicker than other plant based systems in
the world. This plant takes only six hours to treat sewage and also gets rid of its turbidity and smell, said Ashraf.

The system, which has been perfected over a period of 12 years of

experimentation, is literally maintenance free. No electricity or pumps are used in maintaining the flow, only a small difference in fluid
head between inlet-outlet guarantees the constant flow in and out of the system.
The patent for this technology, backed financially by the Department of Biotechnology, Union Ministry of Science and Technology,
was registered in 2011. SHEFROL is highly flexible as it can be scaled down to treat waste water from a single household or scaled
up to treat sewage of a population of more than 50,000.
A one lakh litre capacity conventional STP costs around Rs 50 lakh to set up and maintain in the first year only whereas our system
of same capacity can be set up for as little as Rs 20,000 and efficiency in both cases would be almost similar, said Ashraf. Several
countries in Europe and Middle East have already expressed the interest in the system and the researchers have bagged three
awards for their papers based on SHEFROL.
Ashraf said that the system can be a game change for regions like Kashmir which are battling the problem of sewage and yet
unable to put in place the high cost STPs. Sewage is the biggest threat for our water bodies like Dal or Khushhalsar. The problem
can be easily solved by our system. Given the government cooperation I can install ten SHEFROL system around Dal within a
month, which will make a sea change to the quality of its water, said Ashraf. The present condition of Dal indicates that our
conventional STPs built and maintained for crores have miserably failed and we need to look for other options.

Of the 32 aquatic plants studied by the team, six were found to be highly effective in treating waste water. Salvinia is one of the best
plants to treat waste water in our system and incidentally it grows wild in Dal. In our proposed systems we can use Salvinia to treat
the sewage, said Ashraf who also plans to study more aquatic plants in Kashmir for their efficiencies. We are even ready to work
with communities who wish to set up such systems.
SHEFROL system removes 90 percent turbidity, 60-90 percent nutrients and 60-70 percent overall organic waste. In comparison,
the STPs around Dal are reported to remove as little as 20 percent of organic waste thus boosting weed growth. Comptroller and
Auditor General and independent experts have already raised red flags over these STPs which are based on outdated Fluidised
Aerobic Bio-reactor Technology.
Despite having the patent, the team has decided to provide the technology free of cost to people for the greater benefit of humanity.
It is flexible and can be scaled up or down, dismantled or transferred
from one place to other, said Ashraf who also set up a plant at Chinna Kalapet in Pondicherry for 38 households in November 2014
and trained the local community to maintain it. The plant treats 10,000 litres of sewage per day and is the major attraction for
researchers wishing to see the system efficacy firsthand. Entire sewage of Pondicherry University is also treated by a SHEFROL
sewage plant. Sarvam, an NGO in Tamil Nadu, has already
decided to install 44 such plants in neighbouring villages.
The affluent from SHEFROL is safe to be disposed into a water body or used for irrigation purposes as happens at Chinna Kalapet.
The efficiency of SHEFROL is also backed by independent testing.

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The Hindu
A view of the sedimentation tank and water hyacinth plants at the wastewater treatment plant set up near the coast at Chinna Kalapet by a team from Pondicherry
University. Photo: S.S. Kumar
Based on a technology called SHEFROL It has been designed by Pondicherry University Professor.
Panchayat head of the Chinna Kalapet fishing hamlet in Puducherry, R. Nagaraj, points to the area where wastewater from the houses in the
village used to be let out.

Water used to stagnate here, leading to the breeding of mosquitoes. Now, this area is clean and the villagers are happy about it, he says. The
change has come about after a team from the Centre for Pollution Control and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and
Technology, Pondicherry University installed a low-cost and eco-friendly wastewater treatment plant in this village close to the coastline.

The plant, based on a technology called SHEFROL (sheet flow root level), has been designed by Professor S.A. Abbasi from Pondicherry
University, and is a bio-reactor which uses the water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) to absorb nutrients, pathogens and micro organisms
from water. Grey water or domestic sewage from 38 houses is fed into the plant which measures around 9 metres by 2 metres, and has a
capacity of 10,000 litres.

The plant consists of sand bags placed in pits and channels, a sedimentation tank and a non-permeable sheet which ensures wastewater does
not seep into the ground. Costing only around Rs. 15,000, the university team says that the plant is affordable.

At Chinna Kalapet, the treated water is being used to irrigate a patch of Casuarina saplings. The plant was set up in November 2014 by PhD.
student Ashraf Bhat as part of his thesis work with the guidance of Assistant Professor Tasneem Bhat.
The SHEFROL technology was first tested within the Pondicherry University in 2006 to treat the wastewater for one building. Subsequently,
two more plants were installed in the university, which use duckweed, water hyacinth and salvinia. A patent claim for the SHEFROL
technology, backed financially by the Department of Biotechnology, Union Ministry of Science and Technology, was registered in 2011, and
published in the Official Journal of The Patent Office, India.

Ms. Tasneem and Assistant Professor S. Gajalakshmi of the university are the co-applicants of the patent. The patent claim remains
undisputed, says Mr. Abbasi.

This plant takes only six hours to treat wastewater. It also rids it of its turbidity and smell. The villagers were convinced about the plant
because of its flexibility, and its ability to safely discharge wastewater. The plant can be easily dismantled and set up in a new place, says Mr.
Bhat. Some of the advantages of the plant include its ability to be scaled up or scaled down according to the need. So, it can be customised to
be used for one house or a large suburb, say the team members.

The plant is low maintenance one, says Mr. Abbasi. The villagers were trained to use the plant in a day. They have been maintaining it since
installation. The robustness and ruggedness of the plant is what makes it unique. It can withstand any contingency, says Mr. Abbasi.

The team has prepared a complete inventory of commonly available plants which are present in different regions, thus emphasising that the
SHEFROL technology can be used anywhere. The technology makes use of the topography and gravity, thus doing away with the
requirement of pumping water, says Ms. Tasneem.

Though the technology has been patented, the inventors are offering free transfer of technology, like how it has been done in Chinna Kalapet,
to communities and in public interest, say the team. We want more places to take up this technology. It is inexpensive, efficient, simple,
robust and eco-friendly, concludes Mr. Abbasi.
Puducherry has come up with an eco-friendly way of treating water in a fishing hamlet Chinna Kalapet. Based on a technology called
SHEFROL (sheet flow root level) bioreactor, the wastewater treatment plant is running since November 2014 and helping villagers use this
water for irrigation purpose.

Professor S A Abbasi of Pondicherry University, who designed the technology, says, The technology is low-cost. One plant to treat the waste
from 30-40 houses can be set up with only Rs 15,000 to Rs 16,000. The efficiency and the rate of treatment are as similar as conventional
plants (which require 10 times more money to set up). Prof Abbasi further explains that plant can be maintained easily as it has no
machinery.

SHEFROL technology uses non-commercial terrestrial, amphibious, and aquatic plants in specially designed and optimised bioreactors to
efficiently treat sewage and other wastewater.

In an effort to develop an eco-friendly, inexpensive, and simple technologies for waste water treatment Prof Abbasi came up with the idea of
SHEFROL technology in 2005. With the help of fellow colleagues, S Gajalakshmi and Tasneem Abbasi, he carried out extensive experiments
and field trials to start the technology.
The first pilot plant based on this technology was set up in 2006 at Pondicherry University to treat wastewater coming from B R Ambedkar
building and surrounding areas. At that time it was installed with only Rs 600. With more buildings coming up in that area and increasing
quantity of wastewater, the capacity of the plant was expanded. It proved easy, efficient and inexpensive. Several other similar plants have
been put up in the Pondicherry University campus which are treating wastewaters in different pockets. The technology has been tried for 10
years and has proved highly successful and reliable.

Elaborating on the technology, Prof Abbasi says, The plant uses no chemicals and thus generates no pollution. It can be put up within a few
days and if the land on which it has been put is needed for any other purpose, it can be dismantled and shifted easily. People dwelling in one
house or groups from a colony, a village, a large suburb can use it. Most other technologies are usable only at large scales or/and they become
too expensive to use at lower scales. This is the reason why most villages and many suburbs are not covered by wastewater treatment units. A
team from the Centre for Pollution Control and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology, Pondicherry University
installed the treatment plant. This treated water is used for irrigation purpose.

According to Abbasi, centre governments department of Science & technology, deparment of biotechnology and centre for development of
advanced computing, have independently conducted patent searches and have certified SHEFROL as novel and patentable. Department of
biotechnology, of ministry of science and technology supported the finances in getting the patent. The patent claim was registered in 2011
and published in the official journal of the patent office and the claim remains undisputed.