Cranfield University has unveiled new plant technology that will enable researchers to remove and recover nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater for use by the fertilizer and chemical industries.

The technology, based on the use of ion exchange and selective media (SMARTech3), is being unveiled as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 SMART-Plant project.

SMARTech3 is a 10m3 demonstration scale plant that is installed at the University’s on-site sewage works, with its own dedicated pilot-plant hall.

The SMART-Plant project aims to scale-up innovative and energy-efficient solutions that will renovate existing wastewater treatment plants and enable low-carbon capture of materials that would otherwise be lost.

SMART-Plant, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, is a project with 25 partners that aims to move forward the scale-up of low-carbon footprint material recovery techniques in wastewater treatment plants. The project demonstrates technologies that result in the production of energy, chemicals and other materials such as cellulose, bioplastics, ammonium sulphate, struvite, calcium phosphate from wastewater.

Commenting on the opening of SMARTech3, Dr Ana Soares, Senior Lecturer in Biological Engineering said:

“This new plant technology, at Cranfield, will enable us to demonstrate how existing wastewater treatment plants can be renovated in order to capture nitrogen and phosphorus that can then be used by other industries.”

Cranfield’s 10 m3/day demonstration scale plant removes ammonia and phosphorus from secondary wastewater using modified zeolites and a hybrid anion exchange, with contact times in the order of minutes.

The nutrients are then recovered from the multi-used regenerant solutions as ammonium sulphate and calcium phosphate. The recovered products can be re-used by the chemical and fertiliser industries.

Circular economy approach using low-carbon techniques

SMART-Plant will scale up in real environment eco-innovative and energy-efficient solutions to renovate existing wastewater treatment plants and close the circular value chain by applying low-carbon techniques to recover materials that are otherwise lost.

The integration of resource recovery assets to system-wide asset management programs will be evaluated in each site following the resource recovery concept for the wastewater treatment plant of the future.

The aim of the project is to prove the feasibility of circular management of urban wastewater and environmental sustainability of the systems.

New public-private partnership models will  also be explored connecting the water sector to the chemical industry and its downstream segments such as the construction and agricultural sector, generating new opportunities for funding, as well as potential public-private competition.