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Michael Kanellos | October 26, 2008 at 3:49 PM 9 Comments

Space Age Septic Tank Will Water Your Lawn

Venus. The goddess of love. And wastewater treatment.

Biokube, a Danish company, is going to bring the BioKube Venus to California. The Venus is an efficient septic system that cleans your household wastewater and sewage to such a degree that the water—after treatment—can be used on the lawn. Denmark is a center for water technologies.

“The average American home sprays around 15,000 gallons of water a year on their lawns,” said Patrick O’Regan, head of the U.S. Business Development Center for BioKube. “This will more than take care of that.”

The Venus effectively works by cleaning the water to a much higher degree than ordinary septic systems. In ordinary systems, solids are settled out via gravity. The remaining water then enters a tank with bacteria to clean it. After that, it gets released into a leaching field, where bacteria in the soil cleans it further. In the Venus, the water passes through several bioblocks, or membranes housing bacteria. Further purification in soil isn’t needed at that point, he said.

The Venus can handle around 7.5 liters every 15 minutes, he said. The tank stands around six feet tall and is around four feet in diameter.

Why California? The state has and will continue to tighten up its regulations on these things. Approximately 1.2 million septic systems in the state will need to be unplugged and/or renovated to comply with modern regulations. The state is also facing more challenges with water supply and water consumption.

The average American home, by the way, uses 400 gallons a day.

Comments [9]

  • Dan Chase 10/27/08 11:00 AM

    Actually, of the 400 gallons per day per household, how much of that would actually pass throughthe unit and be recovered for irrigation.  I think most of that 400 gallons per day is to water our lush lawns and gardens.

    Reply
  • greensolutions 10/28/08 8:18 AM

    Great!  Now just slap a reverse osmosis and UV system on the outlet and you’ve got drinking water.

    Reply
  • tanyahalette 10/28/08 11:13 PM

    Xerolet’s Infusion Tank sanitizes all other sources of gray water in the home that drains from washing machines, showers, and sinks. This sanitized gray water can be used as supplemental irrigation for landscape vegetation which can save an additional of fresh water per home each year.

    Reply
  • swt2thjohnny 10/30/08 9:40 AM

    So it will take more than 2 days to process the water used by an American Household in ONE day…Hmmm…Brilliant…Give that Company the contract…morons

    Reply
  • Michael Connor 10/30/08 10:24 AM

    I think Dean Kamen’s “Slingshot” water purefier would a better idea.  And this would finally provide a real market for it.

    Reply
  • Ravi Soparkar 10/29/08 4:35 PM

    It is great development, in view of saving precious water. I wouls appreciate if we can develop such systems afforadble for rural population in third world countries.

    Reply
  • Sommerkind 10/30/08 10:58 AM

    Sounds too good to be true!  And probably is!  California has NO statewide septic regulations, so each County has their own septic rules and regulations (over 60 California counties!).  Most California counties require onsite advanced treatment systems to comply with performance standards set forth by ANSI/NSF (specifically to the ANSI/NSF Standard 40).  Question #1, is this Danish company going to obtain their NSF certification? (note it’s a 2-year minimum test period) Question #2, is this technology going to be IMPORTED, or manufactured locally?  My guess is that we Californians won’t see the Biokube anytime soon.  Look more closely at the Hoot System, which is mfrd locally in each US market and is certified to BOTH the ANSI/NSF Standard 40 (a Class-1 Treatment Unit) and the new Nitrogen reduction Standard 245.

    Reply
  • Yvonne Slenning 03/23/09 11:25 AM

    Almost everyone leaves out the costs of their poduct.We are looking at Raw land (20acres)for two homes and afew RV’s. Your System sounds great. Would you consider using a couple of families as testers (donating and installing it to us.)? We live in Washington State in Auburn. It
    would save us alot of money and you would be involved in making our Familied Dream come true.
    We could evaluate and inform others about your product. Where we want to move, there is so much raw land and no sewers. people are getting serious about going green. Please get back to me and let me know what you think.      Thank-you   Yvonne

    Reply
  • Yvonne Slenning 03/23/09 11:32 AM

    Also ,of course you would have to hump through Pierce Counties Hoops to obtain aproval.

      Yvonne

    Reply

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