Researchers at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad, on Thursday, announced the development of a low-energy wastewater treatment technology that can disinfect biopharmaceutical wastewater while recovering reusable water and methane-rich biogas, offering a sustainable solution for one of the most challenging industrial effluents. The project is supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under its water technology initiative programme, and the core disinfection technology has been filed for an Indian patent, said an official release. Biopharmaceutical fermentation wastewater is considered difficult to treat because it contains large quantities of live production micro-organisms, residual antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes. In the second stage, the disinfected wastewater is treated in a sequencing batch reactor, where naturally occurring micro-organisms remove organic pollutants. The process eliminates over 90% of the organic load, producing treated water that can be further polished through membrane filtration for reuse.