WOW! - Wider business Opportunities for raw materials from Wastewater


Project Summary

Sewage contains valuable substances that can be used as raw materials for biobased products. However, in North West Europe this potential is hardly exploited yet. This results in loss of valuable materials, increased CO2-emmissions and less use of natural resources. The Interreg North-West Europe project WOW! - Wider business Opportunities for raw materials from Waste water (sewage) - aims to make the transition to a more circular approach by matching supply and demand of cellulose, lipids and PHA bioplastics from sewage. The international consortium consists of partners from the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Valuable materials from sewage

There are market opportunities for raw materials from sewage, but for this the sewage treatment plants and the industry need alignment. This calls for a transition: sewage treatment plants need to switch from treating sewage to producing valuable materials. On the other hand, market parties need to regard sewage as a valuable source instead of ‘dirty unsafe water’. Last but not least, the policies should better fit this new circular practice. To realize these opportunities the consortium aims to develop value chains for three different raw materials from sewage: cellulose, PHA bioplastics and lipids.

The following activities will be part of the project:

  • Identify high potential value chains for raw materials from sewage.
  • Develop a Decision Support Tool that guides sewage treatment plants in their transition towards a circular approach on sewage.
  • Build and run three WOW! pilots to optimize and implement innovative recovery and upcycling techniques.
  • Create bioproducts made out of sewage, such as bioplastics, biofuel and bio-char.
  • Create national policy action plans and an EU policy roadmap.


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Project Partners

Lead partner

Organisation Address Email Website
Regional Water Authority Vallei en Veluwe 10 Steenbokstraat
Apeldoorn
7324 AX
Netherlands
wow@vallei-veluwe.nl www.vallei-veluwe.nl
Name Contact Name Email Country
Wupperverbandsgesellschaft für integrale Wasserwirtschaft mbH Gerd Kolisch kol@wupperverband.de Germany
University of Kaiserslautern Heidrun Steinmetz heidrun.steinmetz@bauing.uni-kl.de Germany
University of Luxembourg Joachim Hansen Joachim.hansen@uni.lu Luxembourg
VLARIO Wendy Francken wendy.francken@vlario.be Belgium
Natureplast Guillaume lebouteiller g.lebouteiller@natureplast.eu France
Avans University of Applies Sciences Jappe de Best Jh.debest@avans.nl Netherlands
REMONDIS Aqua Industry Patrick Herr patrick.herr@remondis.de Germany
Flemish Institute for Technological Research Ruben Guisson Ruben.guisson@vito.be Belgium
Pulsed Heat BV Rinus van Praag Rinus.vanpraag@pulsedheat.com Netherlands
Severn Trent Water Ltd. Paul Knuckle Paul.knuckle@severntrent.co.uk United Kingdom
CirTec B.V. Coos Wessels c.wessels@cirtec.nl Netherlands
Trinity College Dublin Laurence Gill Laurence.Gill@tcd.ie Ireland
LAB University of Applied Sciences Ossi Marikka Ossi.Martikka@lab.fi

Events



News


Pilot Cellulose on the way

Posted on

Regional water authority Vallei en Veluwe will start this fall with the construction of the housing for the cellulose pilot on their treatment plant in Ede. In this hall, there will be an installation to produce four raw materials from cellulose, extracted from sewage. Read More

First WOW! student exchange

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Bora Çetin is the first student to be exchanged between the WOW! project’s partners. He is an Avans student studying Biology and Biomedical Research with a specialization in Biotechnology now doing his internship at TU Kaiserslautern. During an Avans project, beginning of this school year, he got inspired with the WOW! project and especially with PHA bioplastic. We asked Bora about his experiences. Read More

Brazilian students extract bioplastic from sewage

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Sewage contains all kinds of valuable matter, such as PHA or bioplastic. This is produced by the same bacteria that can degrade it. This makes PHA very suitable to replace the plastic used to package food like salads or smoothies, the kind that currently ends up as residual waste. At the Centre of Expertise Biobased Economy, a team of Brazilian students is doing research into PHA in sewage. Read More

Project team visits pilot plant Remondis

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On the 4rd of December the WOW! project team gathered in Germany Lünen at the REMONDIS office. Part of the program was a visit to one of REMONDIS’ pilot plants, the TetraPhos. This process recovers valuable phosphorus from sewage sludge ash in form of phosphoric acid, which is mandatory for big sewage treatment plants in Germany from 2029 on. A good example for recovering valuable products from “waste water” which was an inspiring visit for the team! Read More

Severn Trent builds test-bed to recover valuable materials in sewage

Posted on

Five years ago Severn Trent set out its vision and commitment to changing the way they deliver sewage services – to make the most of resources which are becoming scarcer over time - and providing more innovative services for customers in urban catchments. In delivering those ambitions, Severn Trent will deliver energy neutral processing, recover the resources found in sewage and create products and materials for use in other sectors. Read More


WOW! - results of the project 

PHA - Cellulose - Lipids Pilots 

Factsheets:

Technical reports: 

Market potential biobased products


Factsheets:

Reports: 

Techno-economic assesment

Factsheets:

Technical reports:

Desicion Support Tool

Critical succes factors for valorisation routes 

National policy action plans

Luxembourg: 

Netherlands:

Germany: 

Flanders:

United Kingdom: 

EU policy roadmap 

WOW! Capitalization 

Video Cellulose/PHA/Lipids pilot

General WOW! video

PHA pilot

Cellulose pilot

Lipids pilot

WOW! end results

Eliminate micropollutants with activated carbon at sewage treatment plants (WOW! Capitalization)

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