A project led by Aston University has been granted a portion of £4.5 million by Ofwat to explore the possibility of turning sewage sludge into usable resources such as clean water and energy.
The initiative aims to extract energy from waste produced during sewage and water treatment processes.
Gases obtained from this process, such as hydrogen and methane, could potentially be utilized to power engines or heat homes.
The project, named REvAR (Renewable Energy via Aqueous-phase Reforming), will be carried out in collaboration with engineering consultancy ICMEA-UK and sustainable infrastructure company Costain.
The process involves transforming organic components in sewage sludge into liquid intermediates, which are then converted into fuel gases.
This innovative technique, which combines hot-pressurised water with catalysts, aims to achieve high conversion efficiency and reduce the energy intensity of the wastewater industry in the UK.
Dr Jude Onwudili said: “This project is important because millions of tonnes of sewage sludge are generated in the UK each year and the water industry is struggling with how to effectively manage them as waste.
“Instead, they can be converted into valuable feedstocks which are used for producing renewable fuel gases, thereby increasing the availability of feedstocks to meet UK decarbonisation targets through bioenergy.
“We will be taking a waste product and recovering two important products from it: clean water and renewable energy.”
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