Episode Summary
In this episode of WasteWise, host Taylor Doerbaum sits down with Daniel Nelsen to break down the real-world challenges and practical solutions for liquid waste treatment in biotech and pharmaceutical facilities. Daniel shares how effluent decontamination systems (EDS) handle the heavy lifting of treating liquid waste streams, ensuring safety, compliance, and ongoing operations for research labs and production sites.
Daniel explains that choosing the right EDS means understanding each facility’s needs, from containment level and waste variability to operational flow. He highlights the risks of getting these systems wrong—ranging from costly shutdowns and regulatory trouble to heavy transport fees. Daniel stresses the importance of matching system design to the facility’s function, rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all approach. He shares lessons learned from complex projects, like building in redundancy for mission-critical research.
Listeners gain a clear view of what goes into planning, installing, and maintaining these systems. Daniel’s insights offer a grounded look at why proactive planning and tailored design help organizations stay compliant, cut costs, and avoid operational headaches.
BioSAFE Engineering
Daniel A. Nelsen
Director, Project Development
BioSAFE Engineering
Daniel specializes in designing liquid waste treatment systems for high-containment research and production facilities, with expertise in matching solutions to complex regulatory and operational needs.
Key Insights
System Design Should Start With Facility Needs, Not Templates
Every lab or production site generates unique waste streams, and facility operations can change over time. Starting with a deep understanding of what the facility does—its purpose, biosafety level, and operational flow—leads to better outcomes than forcing a generic system into place. This approach means considering everything from animal use and types of chemicals in the waste, to how often operations run and what solids might enter the system. By letting the facility’s needs guide the system’s design, organizations can avoid costly retrofits, unplanned downtime, and compliance issues down the road. A tailored system is easier to maintain, safer to operate, and more likely to meet both regulatory and business goals. This insight applies whether a site is building new or upgrading existing waste treatment processes.
Proactive Compliance Lowers Risk and Cost
In highly regulated industries, waiting for a compliance mandate isn’t the best strategy. Proactive planning for liquid waste treatment, including the right effluent decontamination system, helps sites stay ahead of shifting regulations and operational risks. The cost of non-compliance—ranging from fines to forced shutdowns or reputational damage—far outweighs the investment in a properly designed system. By taking a proactive stance, organizations can choose equipment that fits their current and future needs, rather than scrambling to retrofit under pressure. This approach also supports staff safety and streamlines documentation for audits. Ultimately, proactive compliance reduces risk, keeps operations moving, and saves money by avoiding emergency fixes and lost productivity.
Redundancy Is Key for Compliance and Uptime
Redundancy in effluent decontamination systems isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a practical safeguard for regulated environments. Facilities that rely on continuous operations risk expensive shutdowns or lost research if their waste treatment system fails. Building in extra holding tanks, backup processing units, or even parallel systems gives organizations flexibility during maintenance or unexpected surges. This is especially important for high-containment labs and critical sites where a single point of failure can halt operations or trigger regulatory trouble. Investing in redundancy up front helps avoid costly workarounds, like trucking waste offsite, and protects years of research or production. Finding the right balance—enough redundancy to ensure uptime, without unnecessary overbuilding—keeps facilities running smoothly and within budget.
Episode Highlights
How EDS Systems Work: Chemical vs. Thermal Treatment
Effluent decontamination systems (EDS) are designed to handle the liquid waste coming from labs and production sites with biological hazards. These systems use either chemical or thermal processes to neutralize harmful agents. Chemical treatment involves raising the pH with alkaline solutions, while thermal treatment uses heat. Facilities can use batch systems, where liquid collects in tanks before treatment, or continuous systems, which treat waste as it flows through piping. The choice between these approaches affects how efficiently and safely waste is processed and depends on the specific needs of the facility.
“So as we look at EDS systems, they generally have kind of four large buckets that they fall into, chemical or thermal processing, and batch or continuous processing. Chemical, so generally adding alkaline solution—NaOH, KOH—to raise the pH of the liquid so that it kills off anything in there, or thermal, where you’re applying heat to heat the liquid to similarly kill off any active biological components in that liquid stream.”
Adapting SOPs for Long-Term System Health
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) in a facility can have a big impact on the performance and lifespan of an effluent decontamination system. For example, protocols that involve flushing bleach down the drain can damage EDS tanks over time. Understanding and aligning SOPs with system design—like installing screens to catch solids or avoiding corrosive chemicals—ensures the system works as intended and minimizes downtime. Cooperation between facility managers and system designers is essential for safe and reliable operations.
“So there, the question is, hey, can we look at your SOPs? Is that something you can go back and change and get adherence to that change so that no more bleach is going down into the system? Or does the system have to be designed or redesigned to be able to accommodate those existing SOPs? When we’re looking at ag facilities where there are animals present, oftentimes one step might be to put screens over the drains to minimize the solid load into the system…if the procedure for clearing a blocked screen is to pick the screen up, knock it over the drain and flush it down into the drain, then we’re going to have to look at how do we manage solid stream of that?”
The Challenge of Continuous Liquid Waste Generation
Facilities generate liquid biohazard waste around the clock, making steady treatment essential. Unlike solid waste, liquid is harder to contain and transport, and a spill spreads more easily. If a facility can’t keep up with its waste generation, it may face slowdowns or even shutdowns, disrupting critical operations. Matching the EDS system to the site’s rate of waste generation and its containment requirements is a key step to avoid operational bottlenecks.
“The other important piece with liquids is that in most sites where they’re generated, there’s continuous operation. They work five days a week, seven days a week. There’s always more being generated. And if you fall behind or aren’t able to keep up with your generation rate, you’re suddenly looking at a situation where you have to suspend or slow down site operations in order not to overfill whatever holding or containment options you have available to you.”
The Complexity of Installation in Existing Facilities
Installing an EDS system in an existing building involves careful planning and close coordination with facility teams. These systems are often large and must maintain their structural integrity, which makes moving them into tight or hard-to-access spaces a challenge. Sometimes, walls must be removed or equipment brought in pieces and welded on site, a process that adds time and cost. Early planning and as much pre-assembly as possible help streamline installation and reduce disruption to operations.
“System installation is always an interesting one, particularly when it’s a new system going into an existing building or site, because these are often quite large systems, where the integrity of the vessel or the integrity of the system is critically important. So you don’t want to be taking a large tank, cutting it in half, and then trying to weld it back together onsite in a basement, unless you absolutely have to…and if that’s a situation, we’re able to do that. It adds costs, it adds time, but it’s completely doable…wherever possible, we try to have as much of the construction and build-out done before the system is shipped and arrives on site.”
