Living machines are based on ecological engineering technology developed in the U.S. and Great Britain. They incorporate up to 3,000 species of plants, animals and bacteria that together do the work of a wastewater treatment plant. Externally, living machines look like a group of potted plants and fish tanks. Wastewater passes through a series of tanks, each containing different organisms that perform different tasks, treating the water. Bacteria act as decomposers to eat the organic matter feces, urine, Ackerman-Leist said.
Plants pull out nitrates.
The living machines can t produce EPA-approved drinking water that still requires treatment with chlorine or ultraviolet light but they do produce water of a grade that can be pumped back into rivers. Living machines that only process food waste produce water used for irrigating crops. We have one at the Intervale that converts food waste from the Magic Hat Brewery, said Marc Companion, educational outreach coordinator for Ocean Arks International, a Burlington-based company that makes living machines. Companion, who is working with GMC and five other colleges from Rhode Island to Hawaii to develop their own living machines, said there is also a living machine in South Burlington that processes the municipal sewage of 1,600 homes. Lush vegetation drifts out of large witch s brew vats.