“Not only do we have environmental pressures, but we've also got social pressures to make changes and improvements. It's no longer acceptable to do the same old thing and get the same old results, we have to innovate and improve, particularly in climate-friendly farming.

“It is an extension of our desire to grow our pigs in the best way we can and make sure that we are looking after the environment and people while we’re doing it.”

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“We reviewed the technologies that were currently available and none seemed particularly suited to the piggery environment and the particular challenges we had around having dirty water and wanting to reuse that.”

Since identifying that priority, APL has invested significant funding in research being conducted by a team at UNSW Canberra, led by Dr Adrian Garrido Sanchis, a Lecturer with the School of Science.

The UNSW researchers developed a device known as a bubble column evaporator (BCE), which was designed to produce sterilised water by destroying the bacteria and viruses in the effluent.

The BCE creates a continuous stream of hot, fine bubbles measuring between 1-3 millimetres in diameter at 150-200 degrees Celsius, which rise up through the solution being treated. The collision of this hot rising bubbles with pathogens such as: viruses, bacteria, protozoa and blue-green algae will inactivate them.

The sterilised water is then safe to be re-used in a variety of situations across the farm, including washing down sheds or watering fields. The device has also proven successful in desalinating water and has the potential to create clean drinking water as a secondary by-product of the treatment process by condensing the supersaturated gases that leave the unit.

“Some of the experiments have shown that you can use it to separate out brackish water [water that is saltier than fresh water] which might provide more options for water sources for producers using bore water, as that can often have too high a mineral content to work well with their equipment, or has a taste that means some animals won't drink it,” said Gemma.

Gemma said while the device is not currently set up to generate large enough quantities of pure water to make it a viable source of drinking water for the pork industry, it has got the potential for someone to develop it further.

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Additional research tested the use of electrically heated air, solar heated air and combustion gas from gas engines to generate the heat bubbles required by the device.

Adrian said combustion gas provides the most efficient and effective heating method and would allow the device to run with no operational costs once implemented by piggeries with biogas generators, as they can utilise the combustion gas already being produced onsite to deliver a closed-loop solution.

UNSW and APL patented the combustion gas technology and are now looking for private sector partners to take the device to the next level with additional research followed by the development and manufacture of a commercial scale unit, ready for sale.

While APL are keen to see the initial focus remain on bringing the device to market for use by the Australian pork industry, both Gemma and Adrian said the potential for this technology has much wider possibilities both in Australia and overseas.

Aside from other intensive agriculture production systems such as dairy and horticulture, the device offers potential value to be adapted to sterilise water in other environments, which produce large amounts of combustion gases, such as landfills, wastewater treatment plants, biogas plants and coal power plants. Upscaling the pure water production capacity in these settings could also help to alleviate water security issues in rural communities.

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