Isra-Mart srl:Dutch hail sewage power potential

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Europe's sewage treatment plants could be transformed into energy-generating powerhouses by 2030, according to a major new report.

The international research project commissioned by STOWA, the Dutch Foundation for Applied Water Research, found that it would be technologically possible to upgrade existing sewage works to become energy-neutral or even energy-generating.

The report recommends that techniques to enhance the primary sedimentation of waste water by adding chemicals can create an energy-neutral plant, before the deployment of energy-generating techniques such as thermal hydrolysis of waste can be deployed.

The first such facility is currently being built in Utrecht, although other Dutch water authorities are investigating a more centralised approach in which all sewage sludge from a specific region will be treated in a single 'energy factory'.

Other concepts to make better use of waste include recovering valuable resources such as phosphates from sewage or reusing waste water for boilers and agriculture.

"Currently, the focus is on energy factories, but the challenge is to combine the three concepts into one: nutrient energy water factories, or NEWs," said Paul Roeleveld, one of the report's authors, who works for wastewater firm MWH. "The sewage treatment plant of the future will be a NEWater factory, where waste is seen as a valuable resource."

The Dutch wastewater authorities have signed up to an annual two per cent reduction in energy usage across the sector until 2030, which, along with rising energy prices, has forced waste water plants to explore energy saving and energy-generating technologies.

Richard Ratcliff, water sector director at MWH, said the UK water industry could learn from plants deployed by the Dutch.

"These NEWater factory concepts are transferable to the UK water industry, which in turn is under pressure to reduce energy consumption and maximise renewable energy generation," he said. "Also, UK water companies are now recognising the real need to recover and recycle phosphorus as its global price increases and its global reserves reduce."