How Australia turns wastewater into drinking water

I go behind the scenes at the Beenyup Water Resource Recovery Facility to uncover the science of sewage. Sponsored by Brilliant. Head to brilliant.org/AtomicFrontier for a 30 days trial and to get 20% off their premium annual subscription.
Huge thanks to the team at WA Water Corp for letting us come film!
--------- II ---------
This video was brought to you by an unhealthy amount of coffee and our awesome Patrons at / atomicfrontier .
0:00 Intro
0:27 What's in waste water?
1:47 Inflow and screenings
2:40 Sedimentation
4:00 Digesters
4:52 Aeration
5:18 The Sun is a Deadly Lazer
6:13 Advanced Water Recycling
7:49 But can you drink it?
8:43 Captain Sailout
--------- II ---------
Hi, I'm James. I explore the world looking for interesting engineering stories which explore complex issues in interesting ways. I hold a Honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western Australia and a Master's in Space Systems Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I'm one year into a PhD on space robotics at MIT.
My website is www.atomicfrontieronline.com, I occasionally tweet from / atomicfrontiers , and you can join the Atomic Frontier Discord server to talk about cool engineering stuff at / discord . You can help support my work and see some cool behind-the-scenes content at / atomicfrontier .

[@AtomicFrontier]

You have no idea how hard it was to convince Water Corp to let me drink poop-water! Sponsored by Brilliant. Head to brilliant.org/AtomicFrontier for a 30 days trial and to get 20% off their premium annual subscription.

[@andersreality]

Ah yes I took Brilliant’s course on toilets as well

[@wyrmhand]

Must have taken a shit load of work ^_^

[@BomberFletch31]

I can imagine. I'm guessing you had to sign a waiver of sorts? I know you said the recycled water didn't smell of anything, but what did the other parts of the plant smell like? For example, where you opened the lid to the tank with all the stuff that isn't poop water, I can't imagine that smelling pleasant. And by the way, what a waste of servo pies.

[@petergerdes1094]

Would they not let you drink it pure? DI water isn't dangerous in small amounts only large ones (though I guess I don't know how many takes you did). Most water (in the US at least but I guess AUS too) doesn't get RO filtered before we drink it so I'd imagine it was safer than alot of tap water.

[@OutbackCatgirl]

having worked for the water corp i am not surprised they were concerned lol

[@verylongname8161]

I do the same in cities skylines by putting the sewage and water intake right next to each other

[@choo_choo_]

A little chocolate milk never hurt no one.

[@Franke333]

I came to widen my knowledge, instead I was rickrolled in the first minute

[@unexpected2475]

That was a genius rick roll

[@CAPTAINBOOTS27]

heres the time of it 0:47 wach it at slowest speed

[@petergerdes1094]

How the hell did you notice that!! I had to rewatch at .25x like 3 times to see it...tho I am watching it on a phone.

[@unvergebeneid]

It's under "N".

[@jm30013]

I noticed that the last line said "You wouldn't get this from any other guy", so I had to go back and check if the other lyrics were also in there.

[@qwfp]

6:32 is this loss?

[@lgqst]

omg it is

[@huntercurry8604]

Oh my God

[@ImieNazwiskoOK]

The water loss in Advanced Water Recycling is concerning

[@ipadize]

?

[@skawteebee]

i knew i wasn't the only one who caught that lol

[@KekusMagnus]

When you filter the water so much it becomes too clean to drink. Now that is impressive

[@RekySai]

It's not too clean to drink what? It just has no minerals in it. You can survive off distilled water you just need some salt and other irons in your daily life

[@srpenguinbr]

​@@RekySaiNah, i think your cells don't enjoy destilled water

[@nobody4y]

@@RekySai Now I'm no doctor but from my biology class I recall something about osmosis I think the reason why you don't want to drink pure clean water is because that water would leech out minerals from your body through osmosis

[@matthewlewis5631]

It’s a shit job but… someone’s gotta drink it.

[@tdb7992]

It's so strange seeing someone talk about my hometown on KZbin. Even weirder when they take about where my poo goes. Welcome home mate, nice to have you back in Perf.

[@FiredAndIced]

This system is already implemented in Singapore, called NEWater, and it uses a similar reverse osmosis technology as what is shown in this video. Like this plant, we too scaled up our water reclamation process until we too are able to reclaim at least 40% of raw sewage. You're quite correct that the final treated water gets pumped into natural sources of water to "buffer" for further settlement, i.e. using the natural elements to further detoxify and clarify the water (think of Evian bottled spring water and the ads surrounding how their water is "filtered" through mountain rock to get that mineral water taste). In Singapore, we released them into our collection of 18 reservoirs throughout the main island so that they, too, gets treated by "the sun is a deadly lazer". Also, because the water is "too pure" for bodily consumption, it is instead directed to wafer fabrication plants (we have GlobalFoundries plant in Singapore that needs this type of pure water for their manufacturing process).

[@FiredAndIced]

To address the "what about the hormones caused by the dumping of expired or inadvertent disposal of medicine?" My brother in whatever, the aeration tanks have bacteria that do break down those hormones into harmless byproducts that don't interfere with your body. And with reverse osmosis done on them, picometer-sized holes are literally smaller than the hormones, bacteria and other pathogens that you worried so much. Things that affect your body are already tackled in the earlier processes and we overkill it by both filtering water through these filters and we also flashed ultraviolet light onto the water, so we are making so pure a water we have to add back the minerals into it. That means, we have the capacity to scale up and effectively treat water to a point it's good for even wafer manufacturing plants to use. And they needed pure water, like purer than your heart is.

[@robspiess]

@4:49 Missed opportunity for "Jurassic Fart".

[@MikeV8652]

James is clearly very smart etc. etc., but he makes the highest-quality educational productions on the internet. They are joys to behold.

[@fisch37]

When I first saw him on Tom Scott's, Tom joked James would replace him. Aged like wine

[@awsomebot1]

but?

[@MikeV8652]

@@awsomebot1 I see your point. I used "but" in the sense of "He's smart [and all] BUT [the greatest thing] is his production quality..."

[@claudiaheuston981]

Adding onto your point. I’m studying Waste Treatment Plants and this explains the process so well!

[@ryansamarakoon8268]

The references, the integration of the pie chart into the methane storage tank, gosh everything is always just above and beyond! So awesome to have this talent in Australia!

[@PTRBushi]

"oil" (shows USA flag) LMAO

[@dima.d.]

I'm still waiting for someone to point out the "grease" joke.

[@krissp8712]

Lol yeah, repeated the gag every time oil came up too, he's dedicated to the bit. Grease also went to Greece too 🇬🇷

[@AttyFox]

I thought I spotted something in the what's in waste water text fly by and I'm so angry it got me in 2024...well played.

[@michalswag]

starting the video by putting a camera in something you can close and open is one of my favourite things. but dirty toilet shot is the peak of that.

[@robspiess]

It's cinematography like that which made Good Eats with Alton Brown so great two decades ago, and I'm glad to see it used so wonderfully today!

[@yeetusfetusdeletus]

yes, and it caught my attention better than sludge content

[@KalebPeters99]

I loved your use of graphics overlayed on the drone shots in this one! Really made the water's journey very clear (pun intended 😅) Fantastic work as usual!

[@claudiaheuston981]

When your studying waste treatment plants at uni and this dude explained things better than ur lecture ever did…. Honestly your video is extremely well made!! We really under appreciate how we get to drink safe water and where it comes from (especially in a place like Australia) and there is a lot of work that goes into the water that comes out of our taps!

[@cygnusinfinity5126]

so this video, on top of the educational aspects, I noticed the clear Bill Wurtz reference, the Moth, and the slightly more oblique, but very clear if you're paying attention Loss, but apparently there's also a rickroll in the textblock. James you absolute troll!

[@xislomega242]

5:43 Bill Wurtz reference 6:30 The second bacteria is the four panels of the Loss comic

[@Jan12700]

A friend of the Family works on these Systems. He also has a patent for water purification through the triple point of water, which means that any impurities that would remain or are a big problem (like medication) in normal treatment are't a problem with this.

[@DrBunnyMedicinal]

That's a pretty damn impressive achievement, and really suggests that he is a Big Brain. Things get very weird around the triple point, and water is weird enough even at more human-normal temperatures and pressures! Much respect for anyone that can spend time thinking about that sort of stuff without their brain saying 'Bugger this for a game of soldiers!' and just oozing out of their ears! 😵‍💫

[@IroAppe]

Oh I love this. It's been a problem that we didn't know how to solve. Well, we still don't know how to practically do it, until we have the electrical energy situation figured out.

[@Beagle36]

I love the reference at 5:44!

[@jim22512251]

Yes!

[@bayonnaise0726]

Nice to see a video take place in my home city, Perth. :)

[@AtomicFrontier]

Nice to be home!

[@Nyaliva]

Something people don't realise is that pure water is actually highly reactive and the bugbear of material engineers. I visited one of these plants for work and they said after the ultrafiltration, the water is so pure, they have to immediately add minerals back into it otherwise it would react with the pipes and corrode them too quickly. And yet, people still refuse to drink it unless it's first pumped into a dam, where it has dirt, fish, and bird poop in it, so it can be processed the same as normal drinking water. People think the normal water they drink is cleaner than the treated wastewater, when it's so unbelievably the opposite.

[@feldamar2]

Usually you have your animations right behind you while you walk somewhere or touring. But this time you did a cutaway. Experimenting? Easier to do?

[@AtomicFrontier]

This one was harder to film than normal (only had a few hours to film the whole thing) so didn't have the chance to set up the shots in a way that works for tracking. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning it!

[@feldamar2]

@@AtomicFrontier Makes sense. Also means that you have built yourself a STYLE brand! Which is cool...but also means you might need to be aware of that for the future and let people know when you have to leave the style for reasons like this.

[@unvergebeneid]

@@feldamar2 I was okay with not having a style disclaimer at the beginning.

[@thermitebanana]

Great video James!

[@PascalDickhoff]

@@feldamar2no one needs to let anyone know know anything. If creators make decisions, they don’t need to explain themselves imho.

[@MotoCat91]

Fantastic stuff, I'm always amazed at how well put together your videos are

[@burnzeyy__]

I work at the water corporation and so surprised to see this video on here.

[@solomarkgulo]

The quality of your videos are always amazing! I love the graphics you overlaid on the airial shots, it helped me understand your explanation of the process much better :)

[@christapunt]

I never realised that this is not a standard procedure in all countries. Thanks for opening my eyes. I hope every country gets the ability to fund water treatment plants like this.

[@CemKumral]

I feel like there is a bit more memes in this video than the usual. I kinda like it.

[@VPCh.]

A major issue preventing us from drinking treated sewage directly is the growing use of pharmaceuticals and hormones. Most contaminants can be removed, but hormones and pharmaceutical products are often nearly impossible to remove or break down on an economical scale with our current technology. To make matters worse, they often have a long half-life in the water and are specifically targeted to effect humans in trace amounts. And when you look at the types of things we are releasing via our effluent in the water, they can have a serious impact on your body if you aren't prescribed them. Common ones are antibiotics, antidepressants, birth control, acetaminophen, caffeine, nicotine, hormone treatment drugs, and much more. Ecosystems near water treatment release points are being studied to fully understand the impacts, but there is a growing concern about the impact of them. Until we can properly treat or control these products in the water, drinking treated sewage in a large scale will likely remain a less optimal solution to the water supply problem.

[@thamiordragonheart8682]

the best solution I've heard of is hydrothermal processing, which can even break down fluorocarbons. It can even be net energy positive and makes recovering phosphates, potassium, and nitrates much easier. it's mostly a question of implementation and infrastructure cost.

[@dannyteo5630]

I dont understand - the last few steps of highly scaled filtration and RO in this video were specifically so potent in removing even something as small as chlorine ions, resulting in water so unnaturally pure you couldnt drink it. What kind of hormones or pharmaceutical compound is smaller than ions it couldn't be removed? The water produced in these plants are so pure it couldnt even be called treated sewage anymore. Its much closer to pharmaceutical grade water than even tap water. In fact, its analytical grade - even purer than pharmaceutical since it doesnt even have ions - so pure it couldnt even be drank directly without dehydrating you (sounds weird but true - such purity doesnt exist in nature). I get disgust over drinking treated sewage, but i hate when people pull in scare mongering tactics like this. All water is treated sewage. The only difference is just how obvious does the water originate from sewage. You have much higher chance of drinking oh so scary estrogens that makes the frogs gay from reservoir treated water - the water is less completely treated, and more contaminants can end up in a reservoir from trash and farm effluents (potentially illegally) dumped in - as you yourself said. If you are so worried about such contaminant, you should be championing this sewage treatment system - the disgust of sewage actually resulted in an overkill purification that you don't see in any other normal water treatment plants.

[@VPCh.]

@dannyteo5630 I'm not disgusted by the thought of drinking processed waste water. It isn't necessary where I live since we have some of the largest fresh water reserves, but it could be a critical advancement for arid countries with the money to process waste water, like Austria, Israel, Saudi, UAE, etc. In the video, the water he is drinking is probably safe from those pharmaceuticals. RO systems, ozonation, and similar can remove it. But the issue is scale, those systems are much less efficient than standard water treatment, requiring expensive systems with a large footprint and huge power consumption for a relatively small amount of water compared to the standard ones we use. It might be suitable for a wealthy region with a water shortage, but it's just not scalable to the point where it could be used as a main source of water globally. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for these systems and I think they have many good applications, but until there is a big breakthrough in it, it's going to struggle to be brought to a major scale.

[@HappyfoxBiz]

you clearly don't know chemistry, their process to clean the water is so pure that the h2o becomes corrosive, that's why he had to dilute it for drinking, check your facts before coming out into the public and spewing garbage

[@matthiasknutzen6061]

Doubt it's much if a problem when it's diluted in the aquifer

[@ethanannane8783]

I live in Bunbury, and to see how our water is filtered is incredible! Amazing video!

[@OutbackCatgirl]

how was the tornado?

[@ethanannane8783]

Insane, lucky it didn't hit where I live. First time I remember anything like that happening in Bunbury

[@sup12128]

Bunbury actually has their own water company and aren't supplied by water corp

[@ErnestoPresso]

0:46 waterborne Rickroll

[@krissp8712]

Always gonna Beenyup never gonna Beenydown

[@marmite3135]

Thank you for the educational and informative video!

[@JordanBeagle]

5:36 I hope the ducks aren't bothered by that 😄

[@andytrujillo2935]

Love your videos, Thank you for sharing..

[@Menon9767]

Everything up to the advanced treatment is standard practice where I live in every tiny recycling plant. But really interesting to see the new technology making it drinkable again

[@j.griffioen1415]

dude this video is a work of art

[@abudhabi9850]

Your channel is amazing. Learn something new every time! Super high quality

[@uzetaab]

This was really interesting. I especially like that they capture the gasses and use them to partially self power.

[@seanrawlinson]

i've seen a guy on youtube who was off-grid and treated his own water then siphoned off the methane from the sewage to power his home.

[@ChrisP978]

I moved from Perth to Boston years ago, it was entertaining to see videos in both places. Now it just makes me miss Perth a bit. Love the content and the variety of locations.

[@thomasVerne]

as a microbiologist I always find waste water treatment plants so fascinating.

[@Somerandom1922]

Love videos like this that highlight parts of the modern world that most people don't think about, but interact with constantly..

[@rh9909]

I'm so amazed by how many memes you sneaked in while being informative

[@JordanBeagle]

8:30 Very clever system because underground can also acquire some of the missing minerals that it needs from the surrounding rock in the aquifer

[@agargamer6759]

Amazing video! Loved all the funny image captions and the sponsor read at the end

[@stefmyt5062]

0:47 The rickroll in the middle is hilarious.

[@goatfiddler8384]

When getting ready to do a PhD in Chem Eng at Curtin I was involved with a team looking at colloid mobilisation in the above mentioned aquifer. Lugged about 10 IBCs worth of the RO water from Beenup to Curtin on the back of my long suffering '98 Hilux ute for our experiments. The aquifer retention time I was told was 25 years.

[@wolmirduarte8609]

This is sooooo cool!! Thanks for that

[@JordanBeagle]

6:00 I hope it's clean enough! I guess anymore necessary breakdown can occur in nature, as you said, similar to river water

[@JordanBeagle]

5:00 this is so brilliant. I can't believe I never thought of it before it's like outsourcing work of further stomachs to a large machine in order to make useful products. Everyone should do this!

[@callummcneill6266]

My town has a scaled down version of this! The water isn’t ultra clean enough to drink so it is pumped out to the ocean or used to feed the gold course and footy oval grass

[@Veilure]

Wonderful video. Feels like something I would watch in science class. Once again, well done! 🤩

[@nikanj]

I have the to say, the production quality is better than what some major networks produce. I hope this channel grows to reach many more viewers.

[@Atlasbr001]

Imagine the smell while filming this, good job Atom

[@AtomicFrontier]

Some of the pipes remove smell, so normally it wouldn't smell too bad actually! That said, the morning we were there they had a power cut so their normal "smell remove pipes" weren't quite up to their normal capacity.

[@DrBunnyMedicinal]

@@AtomicFrontier Unfortunate timing! When (roughly) was this filmed, anyway?

[@AtomicFrontier]

@@DrBunnyMedicinal Late January 2024. Takes me ages to edit them

[@jacksonhill1813]

@@AtomicFrontier that’s amazingly quick in my books… for such high quality content!!

[@DrBunnyMedicinal]

@@AtomicFrontier Given the quality and extent of the editing in each video I can't say as I'm surprised in the slightest! Late January this year was a bit toasty, though not as bad as it was once Bunuru actually kicked in (and then stayed, and stayed, and stayed...).

[@ArosIrwin]

I really enjoyed your graphics!

[@emmashafer4893]

Awesome video!

[@AliciaSykes]

Internet, I present to you- the next Tom Scott!

[@wertw120]

Legend has it that the fart tank used to be cylindrical initially...

[@johanbjorkman1914]

When he dressed up as a pirate I legitimately thought he was going to tell me to pirate stuff.

[@lecantalouprouge]

As an environmental engineering student from "third world" country, that ultra filtration is a dream for us because it costs a lot of money

[@mejestic124]

No, just need lot of engineering. thats it

[@xixi560]

Interesting to read, best of luck mate 🤙

[@nhand42]

0:48 Not gonna lie, you didn't let me down

[@markedis5902]

Living in the Thames Water area it was often said that you drink the water at least 5 times.

[@g0dzilla5]

This visual gags in this episode just keep landing

[@robbudden]

Brilliant, Cheers

[@unknownwierdo1]

This is a great video! We would love to know more about the filters. How long do they last and where do they if they are done with?

[@kylesmith4202]

What a process just to get water 💦 😂 Great presentation!

[@DamianAI9]

7:43 Love it genius

[@krissp8712]

Moth pulling an Anchorman. "I love lamp!"

[@Pez_Destroyer]

I like how we got Rick Rolled in alphabetical order at 0:46-0:48!

[@verylongname8161]

I think these videos are among the best on yt, and I already watched like 50 videos on water treatment. I hope you visit an aluminium smelter, or an iron ore terminal, or a coal power plant in your future videos

[@davidec.4021]

Theyshould really do lessons like this in school. Even just as part of high school physics or chemical classes, it would make learning so much more “real”

[@OutbackCatgirl]

I'm so glad you're making videos in WA, there's so many cool things here that nobody else seems to care enough about to do videos on. your little note on swan water being mostly bird poop is spot on lol also that bill wurtz reference was on point! My dad used to be a water meter reader for the WC and then a desk jockey working on approving new main hookups. I did a long stint of paid work experience there digitising the old pink books/flimsies full of plumbing hookup info and lot maps, which often required a ton of sleuthing to figure out which property was which, who owned it, etc due to the age of them (all the way back past the 1950s!) and the tendency for some of the inspectors that originally penned them in having godawful cursive handwriting.

[@Davemon115]

James is like a combination of Tom Scott's research and MatPat's meme-y ARG energy and I couldn't be a bigger fan of it.

[@teambridgebsc691]

Nothing like the sweet scent of an anaerobic digester.

[@thePronto]

"But what if Australians could turn beer into toilet water, then back to beer? Awwww yeeeaaahhh!" "Haven't you been doing that for decades now?"

[@triccele]

An educational video with a subtle Rickroll, 'MURICA and a Loss reference? This is my ideal content to watch.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

James is back in Australia. MIT and Space Science just cannot keep him away from his second home. I see he he was a researcher at UWA System Health Lab, so this vid is part of his Science Legacy.

[@pyglik2296]

0:48 You got me

[@andrewwmitchell]

Fascinating. Having grown up in the country deliberately drinking from our only source of "fresh" water, a rainwater tank with possum poo in it, I'd drink that too! No qualms at all.

[@JordanBeagle]

4:28 One of the times where zooming in actually makes it look less gross

[@ivomo_]

I like the touches of humor in this video, although sometimes they could be a little bit distracting. That feedback said, youre my absolute favorite youtuber. Keep looking up!

[@physcannon]

The humour sets this channel apart from countless other AI generated “educational” channels with robotic voices and soulless content.

[@Meneer456]

Nice video! But how often do the filters need to be changed?

[@DanYami]

6:35 guess the water *lost* all the icky stuff

[@TrebleWing]

the bill wurtz reference is what did it for me. Love it!

[@bricoschmoo1897]

0:45 Of course there had to be a rick roll in the diseases' list :'D

[@astropolski]

Neat video. Eventually it'll be the main source of our drinking water im guessing. That or ocean water filtration.

[@CesarAnton]

It really depends on where you live. There's also atmospheric water capture for places with high humidity. But we would all benefit from recycling waste water. Virtually all fresh water in the world is recycled anyway the only difference is that it comes from the natural water cycle.

[@thamiordragonheart8682]

wastewater recycling is WAY cheaper than desalination because the reverse osmosis pressure is so much lower, so it's generally a much better choice whenever you can convince the public to accept it. Unless you're the crazy Israelis who use desalination for drinking water and then use the wastewater to supply something like 70% of their agriculture in the middle of the desert.

[@vlodek69]

my first thought was "I'm not sure i want to know" but here we go

[@JordanBeagle]

Love the Bill Wurtz reference

[@br3nto]

Wow!

[@JordanBeagle]

Today I learned my city pretty much the exact same process!

[@40jwthomas]

The sun is a deadly laser. That made me proud. I guess

[@VincentGroenewold]

What is worrying though is the amount of energy needed to get to that stage. I think that's the biggest hurdle to overcome.

[@FiredAndIced]

Had you watched the video in its entirety? They used the methane collected from the anaerobic digesters as fuel to offset the energy required to make this whole plant working. These digesters break down the solid waste that was scooped up from the sedimentation tank by the same bacteria that is found in your intestines to turn these wastes into fertilizers.

[@AwesomeSheep48]

@@FiredAndIced Only 1/4 is offset, but yes

[@VincentGroenewold]

@@FiredAndIced Yes I know, but that doesn't mean it doesn't require a huge amount of energy. They burn the methane, also not the best. Sure it's better, but the issue is that we need huge amount of processes to clean water in the near future and we can't afford to use burning as a form of energy for that really.

[@chriall]

Perth Local here, I had no idea about this system and it's actually pretty cool, fells kinda weird watching you drink my used water though even if it is now perfectly clean 😅

[@HackingDutchman]

Does the process also filters out any residues from medicines or subtances such as PFAS?

[@Markfps]

what an interesting video

[@randalalansmith9883]

What happens to the filters? How do you clean the filters? How long do they last before landfill?

[@unpronouncable2442]

I'm glad that "loss" was blocked at the advanced water recycling bit.

[@brendansodyssey]

Running the plant on farts... that's pretty smart!

[@IraWahlmeier]

Absolute chad for Loss at 6:31

[@ArchiWorldRuS]

8:30 then 8:43 yeah, totally normal reaction of a person drinking pure water

[@janberentsen9890]

Wow, the humour is top notch on this one! Similar to the educational content I guess. That's all I have to say. Just complimenting how good the video is.

[@quintrapnell3605]

Sewage treatment is way cheaper than desalination