In a ceremony held Nov. 5 2013, a collaborative agreement to install and study the benefits of Israel’s Applied CleanTech’s Sewage Recycling System (SRS) in a Dutch wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and a Dutch paper mill was signed.
The initiative brought together a host of Dutch organizations, companies and governmental bodies: Agentschap NL, Smurfit Kappa Roermond Papier, Israel Innovations, Aa en Maas Water Board, KCPK (Center of Competence Paper and Board), Stowa (Organization of Applied Research in Water Management) and TNO (Applied Research Center).
SRS prevents approximately half of the sludge in wastewater treatment from being formed and creates recyclable materials by converting the bio-solids into Recyllose— a new sterilized product based on cellulose extracted from the wastewater, which is automatically packed into a reusable commodity and transported to paper, construction, plastic and energy industries. This process reduces more than 50% of sludge formation, cuts up to 30% of WWTP operational costs, and significantly increases the WWTP capacity.
According to the collaboration agreement, the SRS will be installed for a test period in early 2014 at Aa en Maas Water Board municipal WWTP at Aarle-Rixtel followed by the industrial process water treatment at a leading paper producing company Smurfit Kappa Roermond Papier. Assuming the outcome will be successful as expected, all parties hope to expand the collaboration throughout the Netherlands.
If implemented throughout all WWTP’s in the Netherlands, the resulted savings in wastewater treatment operational costs could accumulate to millions of Euros, alongside the enormous environmental benefits.
“We are delighted to start our first project in the Netherlands and we hope that after a successful trial period, our sewage mining technology will be installed across the Netherlands ensuring a greener, power efficient future for generations to come,” said Applied CleanTech CEO Dr. Refael Aharon.
Source: Applied CleanTech
