New Energy and REsources from Urban Sanitation | 2 Mers Seas Zeeën

NEREUS

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New Energy and REsources from Urban Sanitation

Priority Axis

Resource Efficient Economy

Specific objective

Circular Economy

Lead partner

VITO NV

Start Date

13/07/2017

End Date

31/12/2021

Project budget

7 007 864

ERDF amount

3 394 737

ERDF rate

48%

    About

    Common challenge

    The NEREUS project will tackle the common 2SEAS area challenges by boosting further the development of green economy and transforming wastewater into a valuable source of water, resources (eg cellulose, nutrients), and energy that could be reused.
    More specifically, due to climate change, water scarcity is increasingly problematic resulting in a growing need to reuse wastewater. Finite nutrients such as phosphorus are crucial for agriculture and currently not recovered from wastewater. As a result, these resources cannot be reused in a meaningful manner (e.g. as fertilizer). Wastewater also contains energy / heat that could be used as a sustainable source of energy in order to reduce CO2 emissions. Although there is a growing conviction that future arrangements for the treatment of wastewater should be based on the principles of a circular economy, and although the technology is available, decision makers are still hesitant to make use of them due to the lack of practical evidence.

    Main Achievements

    Despite unusual working conditions for most of 2020, the NEREUS partners kept up their efforts for the demo cases. Now, all demo cases are operational. Certainly DuCoop has made a huge progress. In May 2020, the residents of the apartments on the New Docks site (Ghent) moved into their new homes. Right after, the greywater treatment plant by NEREUS partner DuCoop became fully operational, purifying greywater from the apartments (wastewater from sinks, showers, baths, washing machines…). A few months later the heat pump was commissioned and the temperature of the treated effluent (20-30°C) was found to be well-suited to be recovered by the heat pump. In October, water utility company Farys started the piloting tests to reuse the treated water as process water by next-door soap factory Christeyns. So far tests have been promising and operations continue into the 1st quarter of 2021.

    The New Docks demo also received international recognition in the past year: DuCoop reeled in 3 awards. Not in the least the Belgian prize in the Energy Globe Awards, the most renowned environmental prize worldwide. They also won the silver award in the category 'Business Process Award' in The European Business Awards for the Environment, for combining innovation, competitiveness and outstanding environmental performance. These medals are also awarded on a Belgian level (Belgian Business Awards for the Environment), where DuCoop was also honoured with the 2nd prize.

    In recent months, Dutch partner Evides Industriewater made promising progress in exploring how the resource nitrogen can be extracted from wastewater. One of the tests examines adding a specific type of algae, since they feed on nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and produce the valuable blue pigment phycocyanine. As small-scale tests have provided sufficient insights, the algae cultivation has recently been upscaled to a photobioreactor (20 l) to optimise treatment conditions.

    Towards the end of 2020, NEREUS knowledge partners HZ University and University of Portsmouth published a research article in the Journal of Environmental Management about the technical, environmental, economic and social key performance indicators (KPI’s) that can be used to quantify the benefits and the risks of resource recovery. Title: Mathematically formulated key performance indicators for design and evaluation of treatment trains for resource recovery from urban wastewater.

    Partnership

    Partners

    DuCoop CVBA

    Waterlink

    HZ University of Applied Sciences

    Communauté d’agglomération du Pays De Saint Omer

    University of Portsmouth Higher Education Corporation

    Southern Water Services Ltd

    Evides Industriewater B.V.

    Outputs

    Theme
    Type
    Target
    URL / Download
    31/08/2020

    A strategy to provide decision makers with wastewater treatment information about opportunities to implement resource recovering technology.

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Strategy/action plan
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    30/04/2021

    A decision support tool for implementing/executing organisations to select the best resource recovering technology for wastewater treatment

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: e-infrastructure/online tool
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    30/12/2020

    1 overall feasibility report providing detailed and site specific information with respect to the installation of resource recovering technologies

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Feasibility study
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    31/03/2021

    Test reports to measure and to optimise the performance of the installed resource recovering technologies (resource, water, energy).

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Feasibility study
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    15/02/2021

    Report regarding the utilization and market study of locally produced struvite

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Feasibility study
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    31/10/2021

    A decentral wastewater plant recovering drinking water from grey wastewater in Antwerp South

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    31/10/2021

    A decentralised wastewater plant for the recovery of drinking water from grey wastewater and rainwater at a residential house in Antwerp

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    31/01/2020

    Trial a water reuse technology train on a smaller scale (UK)

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    01/01/2020

    A trial plant for removal and recovery of nutrients from decentralised urban wastewater in South-England

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    01/03/2020

    A decentral wastewater installation that recovers process water for industry in the Nieuwe Dokken in Ghent

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    01/03/2020

    A decentralised wastewater plant for the recovery of energy from wastewater in Ghent

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    01/01/2019

    A decentral wastewater plant to recover nutrients and cellulose in Rotterdam and Den Hoorn/Delft (NL)

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    01/01/2019

    A decentral wastewater installation that recovers water from wastewater in Rotterdam and Den Hoorn (Delft)

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    01/01/2019

    A decentral waste water installation that recovers energy from waste water in Rotterdam and Den Hoorn/Delft (NL)

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations
    28/02/2019

    Test site for treatment of mixed sludge

    Theme: Water management - Circular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies - Local, regional and national authorities - Water management organisations