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Clean Water Grow: Go Or No Go?, Simon Ngawhika, Scott Marshall

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

The $43 billion US wastewater treatment industry is a landscape in which the high costs of capital construction and the need for economies of scale feature prominently. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that between 2004 and 2024, over $200 billion will need to be spent upgrading and expanding America’s wastewater infrastructure.

One significant challenge in maintaining treatment infrastructure is the build-up of struvite. Struvite accumulates inside treatment facility pipe networks, reducing capacity and increasing operating and maintenance costs. But discharging the components of struvite – the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous – into the environment also has negative consequences. Concentrated …