Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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SMART-Plant points way to circular economy JAMeS BRockeTT Editor, WWt W astewater treatment innovators from across Europe are jointly helping the sector take steps towards the circular economy in the EU-funded SMART-Plant research programme. The 4-year project, which is funded by the Horizon 2020 EU innovation fund, is a collaboration between 25 partner organisations in 9 countries, including Severn Trent Water, Cranfield University and Brunel University in the UK. It is exploring how technologies that recover valuable materials from wastewater can be retrofitted into existing sewage treatment plants and optimised so they perform well at scale. The recovered mate- rials – which include cellulose, nutrients and the biopolymer PHA – are then being formed into marketable products such as bioplastic and fertiliser. One year into the project, it has made significant progress, with seven pilot plants featuring different technologies either operational or about to open. These plants – situated in the Netherlands, Isra- el, Spain, the UK, Italy and Greece – will provide ample evidence for how utilities might convert their wastewater treatment www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWt | AUGUSt 2017 | 17 sites to become resource recovery plants, with outputs which benefit agriculture and the chemical and construction indus- tries, as well as generating energy and de- creasing the cost of their own operations. This is in keeping with the vision of the circular economy, making the most of resources which will become scarce over time, explains Pete Vale, Technical Inno- vation Lead at Severn Trent, which is one of the partner organisations in the project. "The linear economic model where we 'take, make and dispose' of things is not sustainable – it relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy," says Vale. "In contrast, a circular economy is one that keeps resources in use for as long as possible, then recovers European wastewater experts have worked together to open seven pilot plants which demonstrate technologies which could help make the circular economy a reality The Works