Revolutionary Device from FCE BUT Changes the Approach to Wastewater Disposal

After several years of research, testing, and verification, an innovative technology has been developed in cooperation with ConWe s.r.o., a spin-off company of Brno University of Technology, and the Faculty of Civil Engineering at BUT. This technology represents a completely different approach to wastewater disposal. The result is a device provisionally called an “evaporation bed,” which is designed to dispose of pre-treated wastewater by evaporating it into the atmosphere.

The device uses the principle of natural water evaporation through plants and enables almost complete elimination of pre-treated wastewater without discharging it into the surrounding environment. It consists of an above-ground vertical filter made of bags covered with vegetation. The wastewater circulates in a closed system until it is almost completely evaporated. This process ensures zero residual pollution concentration, which means no organic substances, pharmaceuticals, hormones, or microplastics are released into surface or groundwater. Unlike conventional wastewater treatment plants, which discharge treated water into a recipient such as a river or sewer, this technology does not return water back to nature.

The technology was developed by Michal Kriška, Ondřej Zedník, and Pavel Škarpa from the Institute of Landscape Water Management at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, BUT. The device has already found practical application—the first evaporation beds have been installed at several locations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.