Water & Wastewater Asia March/April 2024

HOTSEAT
Energy-independent
industrial effluent
treatment technologies
By Dr Kiran Kumar Manga, founder and director of HAIDRO
As a Singapore-based company offering
electrochemical treatment technology for
industrial effluent treatment applications,
HAIDRO was founded in 2021. The company
was part of local startup incubator focused on
the water sector — Ripple2wave Incubator’s
2023 cohort. Ripple2wave is supported by
Enterprise Singapore and PUB, Singapore’s
National Water Agency.
Globally, 359 billion tonnes of wastewater
are produced per year, of which 48% is
discharged without treatment due to lack of
low cost and sustainable solutions. About 30%
of the total wastewater treatment cost is spent
on energy, as they are traditionally dependent
on grid power. As the demand grows, this
burden will increase exponentially, impacting
the environment. In 2022, the wastewater
treatment industry was responsible for
emitting 3 Gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon due to
the use of energy-intensive technologies.
HAIDRO provides chemical-free, thermal-free,
net energy positive wastewater treatment
solutions which reduces 40% of energy bills
and 90% of waste disposal costs in F&B,
chemical and construction industries.
ECR TECHNOLOGY
Conventional effluent treatment technologies
such as aerobic or anaerobic digestion (AD),
electrocoagulation and electrooxidation,
require external energy to drive the microbial
or electrochemical reactions and treat
high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) effluents.
Electrochemical techniques, especially,
utilise external electricity to initiate the
anodic or cathodic reactions to generate the
reactive species to coagulate or oxidise the
contaminants. Although these techniques
are effective to mitigate the contaminations,
they are highly energy-intensive and
require continuous external power supply
which makes them unsustainable for future
industrial effluent treatment demands.
HAIDRO off-grid Electrocatalytic Reactor
(ECR) is a chemical-free and low-energy
technology that can be used for both
industrial effluent treatment and desalination
pre-treatment. The catalytic properties of
ECR’s cathode electrode generates reactive
species in wastewater medium without any
external energy, and breaks down organic
contamination or precipitates suspended
solids and separates dischargeable water
for reuse purpose. The potential difference
created between anode and cathode
electrode leads to output electricity as a
byproduct during the treatment process.
ECR reduces 40% energy consumption for
wastewater treatment and could be used
for off-grid applications, unlike many other
conventional technologies which require
large amounts of electricity (Fig. 1).
HAIDRO reduces liquid waste disposal
costs by over 90%. This contributes to
economic savings and aligns with global
initiatives aimed at minimising
the environmental impact
of industrial processes. Its
commitment to the circular
economy is evident
through the creation of
TREATED WATER
OUTLET
monetisable byproducts such as electricity
and organic compost, transforming waste
into resources. HAIDRO treatment process is
said to be 10 times faster than conventional
approaches, which could help users improve
operational efficiency.
Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of HAIRDO’s ECR
WASTEWATER
INLET
ELECTRODES
Fig. 2: HAIDRO’s testing reactor
50 Water & Wastewater Asia | March-April 2024