The decision support tool (DST) developed as part of the Interreg WOW! project by Avans Hogeschool (NL) has been tested by Severn Trent Water (UK). This tool has been designed to provide water industry employees with an easy to use screening tool to assess the viability of carbon-based material recovery options (PHA, lipids and cellulose) at sewage treatment plants. The first testing period got us some nice results!
Avans introduced the DST to Severn Trent Water (ST) through an on-line workshop. After which the tool was used by a number of different teams across ST (Asset Strategy, Process Engineering and Process Advisors) to assess its usability. The feedback was very positive, with all users finding the tool straightforward to use, with the input data readily available and the output easy to interpret.
ST operates over 1000 sewage treatment works and the data from the largest 120 of these (works over 10,000 population equivalent) were fed into the DST to assess which of these plants might be suitable for the recovery of PHA, lipids and cellulose. The results of this analysis are given below, with green representing sewage treatment works that are promising for the recovery of the identified resource, with yellow representing works that may be suitable, although a more detailed assessment is required, and orange represents works that are unlikely to be suitable. The analysis suggests that about one-fifth of STs medium to large works are suitable for PHA recovery, rising to about one-third of the works being suitable for lipids and/or cellulose recovery.
