Jointly organized by REWAISE and Run4Life project, the workshop ‘Nutrient recovery from decentralised operations’ was held on the 12th of April at the IWA Conference WWRR Poznan, with the aim of presenting the results from field tests in Run4Life and other related evaluations.
The event was targeted to scientists and technologists interested in resource recovery and circular economy, more specifically in optimizing materials and energy flows of nutrients, and their application as fertilizers in agriculture.
Over 260 people from 50 countries attended the fully online conference that was dated from the 10th to 13th of April and included 12 technical sessions, more than 70 oral presentations, 40 posters, as well as 4 workshops.
The workshop “Nutrient recovery from decentralised operations” started with an introduction and welcome by Frank Rogalla, coordinator of the REWAISE project.
The first speaker was Nicolás Morales, Project Manager of Run4Life who presented a general overview of Run4Life project, and the main results achieved during the four and a half years of the project, focusing on the decentralized reuse of water energy and fertilizers.
Annika Nordin from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , REWAISE linked third party, presented an overview of the project requirements for commercial fertiliser. As well as the results from pot and field experiments with actual fertilizer products from Run4Life.
The workshop carried on with Ute Herrmann from ASB Greenworld, who spoke about the use of fertilisers from decentralized treatment for hobby gardening.
Lieven Demolder from CEIP spoke about first experiences with decentralized wastewater treatment in new apartments in Ghent and Helsingborg. An innovative waste management system for 430 apartments, serving around 1200 person equivalents has been implemented, reusing treated wastewater, recovering nutrients and energy, and providing the neighbouring industry with process water. This example of circular economy creates synergies between private households and industries thanks to new business models.
It was also discussed the direct use of liquid effluents from AnMBR, and how they can be either applied in fertigation or recovered in the form of fertilizers. Ana Ruíz Martínez from the University of Valencia, led this topic and talked about the optimised concentration of nutrients to achieve economic and environmental viability, and the use of electrodialysis and membrane contactors to maximize the recovery of resources. University of Valencia is also one of the partners of REWAISE project.
Furthermore, Jenna Senecal from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, REWAISE linked third party, introduced the new development of a separative toilet for nitrogen recovery from urine and its use as fertilizer which will be explored with first public demonstrations and field tests. This is one of the developments being tested in Skåne living lab in the REWAISE project.
Merjin Moerland also presented the work from the thesis he just defended the week before at Wageningen University, about removal of pathogen indicator micro-organisms and micropollutants during thermophilic treatment of black water.
The discussion was animated by Javier Brañas from Fertiberia, who debated questions related to decentralised sanitation, resources recovery and fertilizer production from Wastewater to identify opportunities and gaps in market applications.
