University of Hawaii at Mānoa teams with Pacific Biodiesel on wastewater

February 12, 2014 |

In Hawaii, Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa are working with Maui based company Pacific Biodiesel to develop a way to make water from restaurant grease traps reusable. The collaboration is an example of a new type of partnership between local businesses and the state’s public university. UH developed a High Rate Anaerobic Digestion system, or HRAD that uses a type of charcoal called bio char to treat the wastewater on-site while creating methane.

After successful lab experiments, a test scale system was built and installed at Pacific Biodiesel’s Oʻahu facility. Normally, university researchers do all of their work in a lab and are not involved when it’s applied to a real world situation. Often times, the solutions don’t work because of this disconnect. In this partnership, UH researchers and the people who will actually use the technology work together, solving problems as they come up. Cooney says that interaction creates highbrid intelligence.

Category: Research

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