Lystek International Inc. is an organic materials recovery firm. We were founded in 2000 at the University of Waterloo to help municipalities and others reduce waste, costs, odours and greenhouse gas emissions through an innovative approach to biosolids and organics management. Lystek is committed to beneficial use and diversion from landfill through the transformation of non-hazardous, organic material into nutrient rich “market ready” fertilizer products.
It was only fifty years ago when thousands of North American cities dumped raw sewage directly into water bodies. A growing body of evidence on the risks of this practice to both human health and the environment led to a surge in legislation on water pollution.
The rapid proliferation of such regulatory controls on wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) resulted in growing attention on alternative applications for biosolids generated in WTTPs .
A key North American regulatory reform occurred in 1972 when the US amended their Federal Water Pollution Control Act in order to place further restrictions on the discharge of wastewater to waterways whilst encouraging other disposal methods such as land application of biosolids. Biosolids are defined by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “the nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of sewage sludge.”Further incentives to find alternatives to disposal included additional restrictions on typical options such as legislated Ocean Dumping Bans and increasing costs of incineration or landfill disposal.
The convergence of the above two policy approaches opened the door for WWTPs across North America to explore how biosolids can be treated safely for responsible land application as fertilizers. Over 10 million dry tonnes of biosolids are generated annually at municipal WWTPs in Canada and the US alone. Such quantities offer a compelling reason for WWTPs to evaluate how they can generate additional value streams to their core business. Biosolids treated in accordance with federal and/or state/provincial regulations can be used as fertilizer to enhance plant growth and maintain productive soils in agricultural, residential and even mining site regeneration applications. Read more
Given the recent interest and discussions in our Region on biosolids, this submission summarises more than a decade of Waterloo-based research on biosolids processing. The vision was to develop processes to make locally based, University of Waterloo spin-off, Lystek International Inc., into a global, industry leader in biosolids management. Achieving this goal required collaborative research between the University of Waterloo and other top Canadian researchers and Universities. Additional support provided by the Government of Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and various private industry partners….Waterloo Biosolids Processing Research and Technology (1)_Final
Editorial Submission February 2013
Global population is growing rapidly and will likely rise to 10 billion by 2050. To feed that many mouths, food productivity on existing agricultural land has to double. This will be a great challenge as current agricultural trends are showing a decline in crop yields due in part to the depletion of soil nutrients,soil erosion and other factors. This article discusses the impact of these factors on plant nutrition, and the positive environmental and economic impacts of returning organic nutrients found in biosolids to agricultural land. Lystek Editorial- Biosolids and Plant Nutrition
By Kerri Jansen
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
The fields of corn and soybeans at Birmingham Farm, owned by Kansas City, Mo., look like the crops at any other farm.
But unlike most farmland, these fields are fertilized with biosolids produced by the city’s wastewater treatment process.Each year Birmingham Farm uses about 55,000 dry tons of biosolids, sometimes called “sewage sludge,” from the city’s main wastewater treatment plant, Blue River. Its history stretches back to the 1970s when the city first started applying biosolids from a smaller treatment plant to 300 acres of farmland. Sewage sludge turns a profit for Kansas City – Waste & Recycling News
For centuries, farmers have realized the benefits that animal manure have had on improving their soil fertility. In the 1920s, farmers began to use biosolids from wastewater treatment plants as a fertilizer supplement. Biosolids are the organic materials that have gone through the treatment process in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and subsequently been tested and deemed by regulators as suitable for beneficial use on land.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) defines biosolids as “nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment facility. When treated and processed to the regulatory standards, these residuals can be safely recycled and applied as a fertilizer to improve and maintain productive soils and stimulate plant growth.”
The US EPA has gone further as to prescribe recognized categories of biosolids that have been treated to stabilize organic matter and remove disease-causing organisms (pathogens) using various enhanced treatment methods. The categories are: Read more
Sustainable management has made many industries – both big and small- learn one key lesson. The key to being sustainable- both economically and environmentally- is to minimize material waste while maximizing the useful life of the same material.
In the growing interests of waste diversion, wastewater treatment plants across the globe are faced with the challenge of sustainably managing their plant’s residual biosolids and identifying key value streams to which they can better use their products.
Meanwhile governments across the world are incentivizing and calling for the need to switch to renewable energy sources driven by higher-than-ever global energy demands coupled with concerns around climate change and volatility in the fossil fuel market. Read more
Editorial Submission – December 2012
Australia has experimented with biosolids solutions over the past 20 years and in the process has earned an excellent global reputation for biosolids management. Currently in Australia over 80% of total biosolids are applied to land as fertilizer. Click here for the full submission
Editorial Submission – December 2012
As chemical fertilizer supply is being depleted, the long-term security of our food supply demands that biolsolids be recycled as biofertilizer to meet the needs of sustainable agriculture. This practice is support by many scientific organizations and their government in the UK, the European Union and in the United States, all of which have all attested that there is no evidence that systems, regulations and practices implemented for use of biosolids in agriculture in these jurisdictions have had any negative affect on human health. Click here for the full submission
There are many myths surrounding wastewater and other organic biosolids. Here are some of the more popular myths and the corresponding facts in relation to these myths.
Myth #1: Biosolids will spread disease through its application to land
Fact: Actually there have been no scientifically substantiated reports in Canada of illness caused by the use of stabilized biosolids. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a 40 CFR Rule that categorizes biosolids as Class A or B, depending on the level of pathogens in the material. In Class A biosolids, pathogens must be substantially reduced to non-detectable levels and therefore, have significantly reduced potential for vector attraction. In order to achieve Class A categorization, the Rule describes specific processes including heating, composting, digestion or increased pH that reduce pathogens to below detectable levels. The innovative patented Lystek Process is a proven method that produces a Class A quality product and ensures disease-causing organisms have been destroyed. Read more
