This solves The City of Sydney and Sydney Water's problems with volatile solid wastes & sewage treatment as well as problems with future availability of water. It also massively increases The City of Sydney's revenues.

1. Team name: Skillicorn Technologies, Ltd.
Challenge: The Circularity of Water
Project page URL:https://gravitychallenge.bemyapp.com/#/projects/5f4e41c3faaa05001bff9fd3
Describe your idea: Sydney discharges most wastewater to the environment following rudimentary treatment.
All such water and inherent nutrients and energy are lost. Sixteen treatment plants do contribute some treated
wastewater for low value recycling. Most inherent nutrients and energy of Sydney’s recycled wastewater are
also lost. Sydney landfills most volatile solid wastes. All the inherent nutrients and most inherent energy are
lost. Sydney has virtually universal sewerage. At the margin, the last mile of sewerage works at less than 5% of
capacity. Our idea is to solve, simultaneously, Sydney’s water problem; Sydney’s wastewater treatment quality
assurance problem; Sydney’s volatile solids disposal problem and Sydney’s massive budget deficit. This is done
by recycling all volatile solids through the existing (sunk cost) sewers, extracting and monetizing all inherent
nutrients and energy and treating wastewater only to a fully potable standard and recycling it completely.
How does your idea solve the challenge statement: We move completely from the current linear model of
‘take, make, dispose & pay the price’ to the circular economy model of ‘treat, extract, monetize, recycle and
profit.’ We do this not only with water, but with energy and nutrients as well – using the water as the essential
vehicle by which to collect, transport and aggregate the nutrients and energy. The beauty of this approach lies
with the critical infrastructure (sewerage and water networks) being a sunk cost and already in place – and a
citizenry already attuned to paying fees for the water used and the wastewater treated – except in this instance,
no water is lost when the toilet is flushed or the (now larger) garbage/trash disposal unit is used and flushed. We
use GIS, remote sensing, cloud-based data and AI to monitor, track and mange flows and distributions.
What are the expected benefits of your solution:
Strategic relevance The City of Sydney will increase its revenues by over A$500 million per year without having
to increase tariffs. It will also be able to grow to 300% its existing size (population) without having to find or
develop new sources of potable water. The City will solve its problems involving disposal of volatile solid wastes.
The City will meet and exceed its commitments to climate change. Tens of thousands of high paying jobs will be
created. Tens of thousands of tonnes of locally-grown organic food, bio-plastics and advanced materials will be
produced. Sydney’s economy, with a project 7x multiplier effect, will see a multi-billion dollar boost.
Customer value No more stinking landfills. No more water constraint problems. Dramatic increase in locally
grown & picked today fresh organic vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs and fish. Locally available bio-plastics.
Potential impact Increasing City of Sydney disposable income by up to $1 billion per year will have a massive
impact on the quality of life enjoyed by its citizenry – better parks and gardens, healthier foods, better and
cleaner environment, better roads and infrastructure and better services – across the board.
What are the perceived challenges you see in implementing your solution:
• Changes the paradigm for water and wastewater
• Changes the paradigm for local renewable energy
• Changes the paradigm for local production of organic foods
• Changes the paradigm for local production of bio-plastics & engineered lumbers
• Bringing sceptical engineers on board
• Training workers for the thousands of new jobs that will be created
What are the key metrics to track results:
• Increase in City of Sydney budget – without any increase in water, wastewater or MSW disposal tariffs
• Increase in availability of locally grown & picked today fresh organic vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs and fish.
• Increase in local production of renewable energy
• Increase in availability of reasonably priced water, wastewater and MSW services to property developers
• City of Sydney taking a “feel proud” global lead in lowering its carbon and water footprints & contributing to
climate change mitigation
Explain your idea with a diagram:
Mixed Wastewater Streams
Municipal Volatile Wastes
Other Volatile Waste Streams
STL
Lemnaceae Greenhouse
Soluble
BOD/COD
Reduction Membrane
Filtration
Solids/Liquids
Separation
ClarifiedWastewater
Recycled Zero-TOrCs Potable Water
Feedstuff
Bio-Chemicals
BrineBrine
City of Sydney
Homes, Businesses & Industry
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$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
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SeweredWastes