Last week, representatives of fifteen biowaste treatment plants came together in Amsterdam to discuss possibilities for nutrient recovery and reuse from manure, sewage and biowaste. The meeting was organised by the H2020 project SYSTEMIC which aims to stimulate the implementation of sustainable and economically viable business cases for biowaste treatment in Europe.
The project has selected ten so-called ‘outreach locations’ who are interested in opportunities to improve their current biowaste treatment practice. The five SYSTEMIC demonstration plants, who have already invested in nutrient recovery technologies, will facilitate the outreach plants in their process of business case development by sharing knowledge on nutrient recovery technologies and related financial and legislative issues. The project consortium will evaluate the envisaged business cases in terms of technological feasibility, economic viability and sustainability.
The workshop included a visit to the waste-water treatment plant of Waternet and the factory of ICL fertilizers. Waternet, being one of the outreach locations, already produces struvite from their wastewater and they have the ambitions to increase the amount of recovered phosphorus substantially. ICL fertilizers is one those frontrunners who use recovered mineral nutrients as feedstock for high-grade granulated fertilizers. On the last day of the meeting, the outreach plants were divided into three groups which will focus on opportunities for nitrogen recovery, phosphorus recovery and valorisation of organic matter and fibres.
More information about the SYSTEMIC project and it’s demonstration plants can be found on the project website.
