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Every Drop Counts
Working in close collaboration with faculty members and postgraduate students, NRF A-rated Professor George Ekama
has been recognised internationally for his research that has provided innovative solutions to enhancing and improving
wastewater treatment and, in so doing, has helped South Africa find answers to its water-shortage problems. He lives by
a simple research credo: "Locally inspired, globally relevant".
International Award for Professor George Ekama
Researcher Profile
Professor George Ekama was part of an international
team which received a Global Grand Honour Award
in the Applied Research category at the 2012 Project
Innovation Awards for their project “Making use of
seawater as an alternative resource”. His teammembers
were representatives from Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology, Hong Kong Airport Authority,
Hong Kong Drainage Services Department, and Delft
University of Technology. The Project Innovation Awards
Programme was established by the International Water
Association (IWA) in 2006 to recognise excellence and
innovation in water-engineering projects throughout
the world. The awards programme supports IWA’s goal
to “connect water professionals worldwide to lead the
development of effective and sustainable approaches
to water management”.
Water, food, energy and sanitation are basic humanity
needs. Nevertheless, water scarcity, water pollution,
global warming, and food shortages are affecting many
parts of the world. Although the planet has plenty of
water, 97% is in the ocean, which is too salty for human
consumption. The aim of the research is to make use
of seawater as an alternative resource of water, energy
and fertiliser through an integrated Triple Water Supply
(TWS) System, the SANI (sulfate reduction, autotrophic
denitrification and nitrification integrated) Process and
the Urine Phosphorous Recovery (UPR) System. The
TWS System integrates freshwater supply, seawater
supply for toilet flushing, seawater-based cooling and
grey-water reuse as an integrated water-supply and
sanitation system. This has been applied in the Hong
Kong International Airport, saving 52% of its freshwater
demand and 30,000 MWh of electricity annually.
Making use of sulfate originating from seawater, the
SANI Process introduces a sulfur cycle into the carbon
and nitrogen cycles for sewage treatment. Sulfur acts
as the electron carrier for passing the electron from
organic carbon to oxygen through heterotrophic sulfate
reduction, autotrophic denitrification and autotrophic
nitrification. As all the three biochemical reactions
produce minimal sludge, the SANI process effectively
minimises sludge handling and disposal, which can
save 50% of cost and one-third of energy consumption.
Making use of the magnesium ion in seawater, the
new UPR technology recovers phosphorus from urine
in the form of magnesium ammonium phosphate, a
valuable phosphorus and nitrogen containing fertiliser,
by mixing hydrolysed urine with seawater. While the TWS,
SANI and UPR systems can be applied individually, the
integrated system would provide the greatest financial
and environmental benefits, especially for islands and
coastal cities of developing countries.
Professor Ekama has published over 150 research papers
together with his research group have been co-authors
of four of the IWA Scientific and Technical Reports
on activated sludge modelling, community analysis
and secondary settling tanks. He has been a visiting
professor at Virginia Tech, the University of Padua and
the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in the
Netherlands. He is one of only a few environmental
engineering professors listed on Thomson Reuters (ISI)
Highly Cited Research website.
Professor Ekama is to be awarded in Silver, the
National Order of Mapungubwe, by the Presidency
of South Africa in 2013. The Order will recognise
Professor Ekama’s research excellence and exceptional
achievements which have benefitted communities in
both South Africa and beyond.