Igloo-shaped ‘Poo-Gloos’ help clean up sewage

WASHINGTON - Researchers have developed a novel method to clean up sewage just as effectively as multimillion-dollar treatment facilities for towns outgrowing their waste-treatment lagoons.

They have come up with an inexpensive igloo-shaped, pollution-eating devices nicknamed “Poo-Gloos”.

Kraig Johnson, of the Wastewater Compliance Systems, and his research team developed the Poo-Gloo when he worked as a research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Utah.

It was designed to address the problem faced by communities outgrowing their sewage lagoons.

Poo-Gloos use a thriving bacterial biofilm to consume pollutants. Two dozen or more igloo-shaped Poo-Gloos are installed on the bottom of the lagoon, fully submerged and arrayed in rows.

Each Poo-Gloo consists of a set of four progressively smaller, plastic domes nested within each other like Russian nesting dolls and filled with plastic packing to provide a large surface area for bacterial growth.

Rings of bubble-release tubes sit at the base of every Poo-Gloo and bubble air up through the cavities between domes. The air exits a hole in the top of each dome. As air moves through the dome, it draws water from the bottom of the lagoon up through the dome and out the top.

“The removal rates we saw during the pilot test are comparable to removal rates from a rotating biological contactor, which is a commonly used device in mechanical treatment facilities,” said Johnson.

The study would be presented in Miami during the Water Environment Federation’s Impaired Water Symposium. (ANI)