News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:40% of US lithium needs could come from wastewater by pfdietz on Thursday May 16, 2024 @12:06PM (#40380008)
It's the stuff that's left after anaerobic, then aerobic, bacteria have chowed down on the sewage. It's basically dead bacteria. Any pathogens would have become food for these decomposers.

I think I'd also worry about residual drugs. Some don't break down quickly.

Re:40% of US lithium needs could come from wastewater by hi-v-rocknroll on Thursday May 16, 2024 @05:31PM (#40383470)
Maybe we should rethink wastewater streams for selective recycling: stormwater, graywater, blackwater, and yellowwater. Perhaps the latter two should be recycled where possible and then residual wastes close-loop incinerated to prevent leeching any sort of biologically-active molecules or pathogens into the environment.
Re:40% of US lithium needs could come from wastewater by pfdietz on Saturday May 18, 2024 @07:51AM (#40398219)
The quantity of drugs in the waste stream is surprising. For example: I take 1000 mg daily of metformin. Although I have (of course) never measured it, a person produces 100 to 250 g/day of fecal matter. This is 75% water, so reasonably my excreta, on a dry basis, is up to 4% metformin(!). Metformin is largely excreted and breaks down in the environment only slowly, so it would contribute significantly to the nitrogen figure for waste-derived fertilizer.

Wikipedia says this:

"Metformin and its major transformation product guanylurea are present in wastewater treatment plant effluents and regularly detected in surface waters. Guanylurea concentrations above 200 μg/L have been measured in the German river Erpe, which are amongst the highest reported for pharmaceutical transformation products in aquatic environments."