H2020 SMART-Plant Project: Scaling up low-carbon material recovery techniques in existing wastewater treatment plants
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2016 -2020
- Assigned Budget 7.536.300,02 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website Proyecto SMART-Plant
Data collected during the long-term operation of the main, sub, and downstream SMARTechs, along with SMART product characteristics, were elaborated during the final year of the project. Analyses, digital solutions, water tariff impact assessments, surveys, and marketing activities demonstrated the sustainability and added value of SMARTechs and SMART products from technical, environmental, social, and economic perspectives. Technical added value: Most main and sub-SMARTechs fully demonstrated their ability to reduce sludge disposal costs, energy demand, and carbon footprints, while also resulting in energy efficiency and the recovery of energy, nutrients, and other materials (such as cellulose and biopolymers). SMART-Plant validated digital support tools/systems for:
- Real-time monitoring of energy demand and GHG emissions during process operation.
- Support the decision on the optimal configuration of a WWTP.
Regarding the chemical safety of SMART products, various analyses have been conducted to investigate the concentration of pesticides and heavy metals in the recovered materials, the agronomic value of the recovered nutrients, and the quality and characterization of the obtained consumer and/or industrial products. These data can contribute to the advancement of scientific research and the decision-making process of utility managers and policymakers. Environmental added value: energy-efficient water treatment technologies validated by SMART-Plant are capable of extracting and valorizing the valuable resources available in wastewater and developing new consumer and/or industrial products. The high recovery rates of SMARTechs contribute to compliance with strict limits on nutrient discharge into effluent water.
The SMART-Plant approach contributes to a green and circular economy and a long-term sustainable society by recovering new raw materials for use in various industrial sectors. Results show that material recovery can significantly reduce total energy demand and GHG emissions (i.e., by up to 70%), and provide operational savings at the WWTP, such as less aeration energy, fewer chemicals, and less sludge disposal.
- Social and legislative added value: Much of SMART-Plant's efforts were devoted to overcoming social and legislative barriers and assessing public attitudes toward nutrients and materials recovered from wastewater. Several outreach, stakeholder, and public engagement activities aimed to raise awareness of the environmental benefits derived from the adoption of water reuse and resource recovery plans. Overall, relevant legislative barriers (such as the end of waste status, the lack of a harmonized European regulatory framework) remain. However, SMART-Plant achieved encouraging and tangible results in terms of political support at the national and European levels, both directly and through participation in the activities of EU stakeholder platforms.
- Economic added value: The economic sustainability of most SMARTechs was demonstrated by the OPEX savings achieved through the reduction in the volume of sludge to be treated, the reduction in energy consumption, and operational efficiency.
Furthermore, an appropriate national/local regulatory framework can support sustainable and circular solutions, such as SMARTechs, and incentivize water utilities through water tariff benefits. Consulting, feasibility studies, large-scale design activities, and replication are already underway and will provide robust evidence of the technologies' economic sustainability.
During the 3rd period (M37-M48) the consortium focused its efforts on: - the completion of the sustainability assessment (technical, economic, social and environmental) of the SMART-Plant solutions.
- Explore and demonstrate the transferability, replicability, and marketability of SMART technologies and SMART products across different sectors, countries, and contexts; and advance and finalize the ETV of eligible SMARTechs.
- Paving the way for exploitation beyond the SMART-Plant project by delivering a robust business plan facilitated by the use of digital support tools (for monitoring, evaluation, and decision-making - DSS).
- Support policy (e.g., sludge management and end-of-waste criteria) at national and EU levels, in line with EC priorities; - increase visibility through the publication of high-impact ISI scientific articles.
- The organization of the major international SMART-Plant final conference with over 375 participants (IWA RR 2019) and follow-up activities. SMARTechs served as the main source of:
- Recovered materials, to develop SMART products.
- Long-term data to: model, evaluate and (in ETV-eligible cases) certify eco-innovative solutions.
The output was used in the third phase. The recovered materials were used in WP3 for post-processing and SMART product development, characterization, and testing. In WP5, the data and long-term optimal performance were used to update the model, for business development, and marketing intelligence. The project results were presented to a wide audience of water stakeholders during the SMART-Plant final conference, organized within the framework of the IWA Resource Recovery Conference 2019, from September 8 to 12, Venice, as well as during ECOMONDO 2019.
The overall objective of SMART-Plant was to validate and launch a portfolio of 7 eco-innovative solutions (SMARTechnologies) that, individually or in combination, can renovate and upgrade existing municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) into water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs).
After four years of implementation, SMART-Plant has validated nine SMARTechs capable of significantly reducing WWTP operating costs (energy savings, GHG emissions reduction, sludge reduction) while also resulting in the recovery of energy, nutrients, and other materials (cellulose, PHA, cap, struvite, ammonia, and ammonium sulfate). Although resource recovery and reuse are still perceived by WWTPs as an added value, not a selling point in itself, the operational savings and performance improvements proposed by SMARTechs perfectly meet the current and future needs of water utilities. Three SMARTechs have been certified through ETV (Environmental Technology Verification). SMART-Plant has also validated two digital support tools/systems for real-time monitoring of energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions and for supporting decisions on the optimal configuration of a WWTP.
The materials recovered by SMARTechs were used to develop valuable new SMART products (such as biocomposites, fertilizers, and additives) that were tested to meet legal and market requirements. The results in terms of chemical safety, pesticide and heavy metal concentrations, agronomic value, quality, and yields were encouraging, leading the SMART product portfolio to be brought to the attention of the water, chemical, agricultural, and construction sectors to begin creating new value chains. Thanks to SMART-Plant, resource recovery technologies are ready and readily available at WWTPs, driving market and legislation to overcome residual societal biases and legislative barriers. SMART-Plant achieved encouraging and tangible results in terms of political support at the national and European levels to overcome legislative barriers, both directly and through participation in the activities of EU stakeholder platforms.
SMART-Plant will scale up eco-innovative and energy-efficient solutions to refurbish existing wastewater treatment plants and close the circular value chain by applying low-carbon techniques to recover materials that would otherwise be lost. Seven and two pilot systems will be optimized for more than two years in real-world settings at five municipal water treatment plants, including two post-processing facilities. The systems will be automated to optimize wastewater treatment, resource recovery, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
A comprehensive SMART portfolio comprising biopolymers, cellulose, fertilizers, and intermediates will be recovered and processed into marketable final products. The integration of resource recovery assets into system-wide asset management programs will be assessed at each site following the resource recovery paradigm for the wastewater treatment plant of the future, enabled through SMART-Plant solutions. The project will demonstrate the feasibility of circular urban wastewater management and the environmental sustainability of the systems, demonstrated through life cycle assessment and life cycle costing approaches to demonstrate the overall benefit of expanded water solutions. A dynamic model and decision support superstructure framework will be developed and validated to identify optimal SMART-Plant system integration options for recovered resources and technologies.
Global market deployment will be achieved as the appropriate solution for water utilities and relevant industrial stakeholders, considering the strategic implications of the resource recovery paradigm for both public and private water management. New public-private partnership models will be explored, connecting the water sector with the chemical industry and its downstream segments, such as the construction and agricultural sectors, thus generating new financing opportunities, as well as potential public-private competition.
Wastewater treatment plants are one of the most expensive industries in terms of energy requirements: large amounts of energy are expended treating wastewater for reuse or environmental disposal. According to the International Energy Agency, global electricity consumption for wastewater collection and treatment will require more than 60% more electricity in 2040 than in 2014, as the amount of wastewater requiring treatment increases.
Waste in, resources out It is important to view wastewater treatment plants not just as waste disposal, but rather as resource recovery facilities. This means they have the potential to produce clean water, recover safe nutrients and materials, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels through energy-efficient processes and renewable energy production. Pan-European innovators in wastewater treatment came together through the EU-funded SMART-Plant project to explore how technologies that recover valuable materials from wastewater to produce marketable products can be retrofitted into existing wastewater treatment plants. Furthermore, the project developed new systems to monitor the energy use and carbon footprint of wastewater treatment. Smart Material Recovery Technologies “SMART-Plant developed innovative, environmentally friendly solutions that demonstrate how utilities can convert their wastewater treatment plants into resource recovery facilities, reduce their energy and carbon footprint, and digitalize their operations,” notes project coordinator Francesco Fatone.
The project demonstrated different technologies (SMARTechs) in seven pilot plants. In the Netherlands, project partners developed a process to separate cellulose from incoming wastewater and convert it into clean cellulose fibers. In Israel, partners demonstrated a patented anaerobic biofilter that transforms wastewater into renewable energy (biogas). The Spanish partners demonstrated a process called SCEPPHAR to treat wastewater while simultaneously recovering products (up to 50% phosphorus and sludge enriched with PHAs, the most promising biopolymers as substitutes for petroleum-derived plastics). The UK pilot project demonstrated an ion exchange process to recover ammonia and phosphorus from secondary wastewater, for potential reuse in the chemical and fertilizer industries. In Italy, SCENA and SCEPPHAR treatment plants treat sludge liquor, highly loaded with nitrogenous and phosphorous nutrients, to remove up to 85% of the nitrogen, recover phosphorus in the form of struvite, and produce PHA-enriched sludge, while reducing energy costs by up to 20%. In Greece, thermal hydrolysis is being developed in conjunction with SCENA to treat sludge reject water with high ammonia content. The resources extracted by SMARTechs (cellulose, nutrients, and PHA) are converted into products by two downstream SMARTechs.
The first technology uses cellulosic and PHA materials to manufacture biocomposite plastics that can be used in the construction industry or for consumer goods.
The second involves dynamic composting to produce commercial fertilizer or biofuel from cellulosic, phosphorus-rich sludge. Removing Obstacles to Circular Wastewater Treatment The water industry plays an important role in the emerging circular economy, helping to keep resources in use for as long as possible. "SMART-Plant believes that water utilities can become the drivers of the circular economy if operators replace hesitation and skepticism with a generally positive attitude toward eco-innovative solutions for resource recovery," explains Fatone.
To achieve this, the project partners involved local water utility personnel in the large-scale pilot facilities, providing training sessions and manuals. "This helped operators understand how resource recovery systems can gradually shift the paradigm of wastewater management without disrupting existing assets and workloads," Fatone notes. SMART-Plant's wide range of technologies demonstrates that wastewater should not be treated as waste, but as a resource.
- UNIVERSITA POLITECNICA DELLE MARCHE (UNIVPM)
Related projects
