Last week the WOW! consortium came together for the project kick off. Partners from the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands gathered to meet each other and discuss about the content.
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 ÔÇÿdirty unsafe waterÔÇÖ. 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.
We are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration!
