Wastewater is the biggest waste by volume in New Zealand. Approximately 1.5 billion litres of domestic wastewater is discharged into the environment daily.

Waste water treatment

Greywater and blackwater (sewage) treatment practices have changed significantly in recent years. Changes include the reuse of sewage sludge and effluent on land, and the emergence of new technologies for the treatment of sewage. However wastewater management is a significant cost to society and the environment.

There are very effective, small treatment systems available for individual homes. The Biolitix® System mimics nature (and in fact uses nature) so that waste water can be treated and then safely used to irrigate your garden. Water excess to the garden’s needs simply filters down into the groundwater system and is purified further.

The following describes how the Biolitix® system works:

Case study: The Biolitix® System

The Biolytix® System is a robust, organic wet soil ecosystem in a tank and is home to worms, beetles and billions of microscopic organisms.  It recycles sewage and wastewater into irrigation water for your garden.  It can also recycle all food scraps (with an in sink grinder) and break down non-plastic sanitary items.

All water and sewage from the household is fed onto the Biolytix® filter-bed using standard plumbing.  The solids are broken down at this top filter layer and the remaining wastewater is then cleansed as it passes through the three filter layers.

The top layer

The top layer is made up of coarse mesh bags with plastic media in them. This houses the wet soil ecosystem. It accommodates worms, beetles and billions of microscopic organisms. These soil creatures are vital “macerator” organisms, breaking up the organic material, converting the waste into humus and structuring it so that its drainage and air porosity are continually renewed and maintained indefinitely. The organic matter particles then wash through and accumulate on the surface of a finely structured humus and coco-peat layer.

The middle layer

Here it is reprocessed again and again and structured into a sponge-like filter matrix by the soil organisms that live in it. They constantly renew its drainage and aeration pores. The fine structured compost has remarkable properties. It is 90% water by weight, yet has a high cation and anion exchange capacity. This means it adsorbs and holds back pollutants such as many chemical compounds and toxins for the trillions of living organisms to digest over time (most competing treatment processes don’t have this ability). It also has powerful odour-absorbing capacity, which is why we can guarantee no odours.

The last layer

After the last layer, the effluent has been well treated and a geofabric filter, the size of the diameter of the tank, filters out all particles larger than 90 micron. This three dimensional filter is biologically cleaned. The water component of the wastewater finally accumulates in the sump where some more of the very fine sediment is settled out in a quiescent zone before the clear, reclaimed water can be pumped or drained to irrigation or reuse. The Smart Biolytix® Patent

Biolytix® has the patent to use the structured humus as the filter to cleanse the wastewater. This cleverly turns the problem (the waste) into the solution (the filter to cleanse the wastewater).

As the technology is fully aerobic it does not require an energy-intensive aquatic or odourous septic stage. The layered, flexible modular filter elements are designed to also be installed into a conventional septic tank unit, but are equally suited to be used within any vertical cylindrical tank (normally a minimum depth of approximately 1.5m is required).

Normally the filter is constructed within a standard 3000 litre polymer tank (1.88m diameter by 1.63m high). The only mechanical components in the standard treatment unit (BF6 system) are a single-phase industrial strength pump and a tiny but robust (5 watt) air pump.

Biolitix waste water treatment