.jpg)
HYDERABAD, August 30, 2026 - Scientists at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, have developed a new low-energy integrated technology for wastewater treatment. This technology can provide a sustainable solution in mitigating one of the most challenging wastewater streams of the biopharmaceutical industry. Researchers have been able to demonstrate the technology at the laboratory level. The research team is now collaborating with Biological E. Limited, one of the leading vaccine manufacturers in India located at Genome Valley, Hyderabad, for the first time to take the technology to the industry.
The biopharmaceutical fermentation wastewater can now be safely disinfected with the new technology, which departs from traditional chemical and steam sterilization. The system incorporates the recovery of reusable water and the recovery of methane biogas. This technology can provide the pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing and a host of industrial sectors with wastewater treatment that is water-conserving and energy-recovering and which integrates an environmentally sustainable solution.
The disinfection system is an Indian patent-pending technology. The support for the technology was provided by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under the Water Technology Initiative as part of the Optimum Water Use in Industrial Sectors program. This study was conducted by the BITS Environmental Science and Technology (BEST) Laboratory, directed by Prof. Sankar Ganesh Palani, and included Prof. Mithun Mondal, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and research scholar Mr. Ravindra Dnyanaba Kulal of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus.
Elaborating on the need for such research, Prof. Sankar Ganesh Palani, Department of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, said:
Traditional treatment methods for biopharmaceutical fermentation wastewater require extensive use of chemicals and thermal energy. Our integrated approach shows that resource recovery, including reusable water and clean energy, can be achieved through the safe electrical pulse disinfection of complex wastewater. It is anticipated that this technology will aid industries in decreasing their ecological footprint and enhancing the sustainability of wastewater management.
The researchers patented the disinfection technology in India under the title "Voltage-Assisted Inactivation of Bacteria in Wastewater (VAIBaW)", with a research paper describing the work in a peer-review process. Biopharmaceutical fermentation wastewater is one of the most challenging wastewater streams to manage due to the presence of millions of viable production microorganisms, antibiotics, and antibiotic resistance genes. Due to biosafety concerns, the current treatment methods of the industry use chemical treatment followed by energy-intensive and costly steam-based autoclaving.
Three-Stage Process
An energy-recovery-integrated three-stage treatment process was developed by the BITS Hyderabad research team, in which disinfection is achieved using electricity. This is followed by biological treatment.
Stage 1: Pulsed Electric Field (PEF)
The first stage uses Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) technology, where extremely high-voltage short electrical pulses destroy bacterial cells through a process known as irreversible electroporation. Unlike conventional sterilisation methods, the process requires neither chemicals nor heat.
Laboratory studies on real biopharmaceutical fermentation wastewater demonstrated more than 99.9999 per cent (6 log reduction) bacterial inactivation, achieving sterilisation performance comparable to conventional autoclaving while significantly reducing energy consumption.
Stage 2: Biological Treatment
Following electrical disinfection, the wastewater is treated in a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR), where naturally occurring microorganisms remove organic pollutants.
This biological treatment eliminates over 90 per cent of the organic load, producing treated water that approaches reuse quality after membrane filtration.
Stage 3: Renewable Energy Recovery
The final stage converts residual sludge into a renewable energy resource using the team's patented Intelligently Stirred Thermophilic Anaerobic Reactor (iSTAR®).
The reactor produces methane-rich biogas that can meet part of the treatment plant's own energy requirements, while the treated water can be recovered for reuse, helping industries move towards zero liquid discharge and more sustainable water management.
Click Here for More Institutional Activities