Bruce Rittmann, Mark van Loosdrecht bag Stockholm Water Prize 2018

STOCKHOLM - Two environmental biotechnology professors have been named the 2018 Stockholm Water Prize Laureates for their work in revolutionizing water and wastewater treatment, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) announced Thursday.

By revolutionizing microbiological-based technologies in water and wastewater treatment, professors Mark van Loosdrecht and Bruce Rittmann has demonstrated how to remove harmful contaminants from water, cut wastewater treatment costs, reduce energy consumption, and even recover chemicals and nutrients for recycling, according to a press release from SIWI the other day.

Van Loosdrecht is a professor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands while Rittmann is a Regents' professor of environmental engineering and director of the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, in the United States.

"This is a recognition not just of our work but of the contributions microbiological engineering can make to the water sector," Van Loosdrecht said, on receiving news of the prize.

The laureates' research has led to new processes for wastewater treatment currently being used around the globe.

"Traditionally, we have just thought of pollutants as something to get rid of, but now we're beginning to see them as potential resources that are just in the wrong place," said Rittmann.

In his research, he has studied how microorganisms can transform organic pollutants to something of value to humans and the environment.

"We're in the middle of a paradigm shift, with more and more focused on how we can create resources using microbial systems," he added.

Van Loosdrecht's research has led to increasingly common wastewater treatment processes that are less costly and more energy efficient than traditional methods.

"With current technology, you can already be energy neutral and there is a lot of research on how to become energy positive. Especially in developing countries with unstable electricity supply and limited access to funding, this is very important. If we could build a wastewater plant that is self-sufficient in energy, that would make sewage plants feasible in many more places," said Van Loosdrecht.