Project description
A pioneering liquid waste treatment solution
Today, there are ever-greater volumes of liquid waste, which are inefficiently treated and negatively contribute to global pollution. The Swiss company TreaTech has developed a pioneering technology that transforms liquid waste from a liability into a resource. The solution converts a wide range of liquid wastes from different industries (i.e. chemical, food and beverage, municipal, livestock) into local, pollutant-free and methane-rich renewable gas. It also recovers valuable finite minerals (i.e. phosphorus) as well as the water contained in the waste that is clean after the process. As countries are striving for energy independence, the technology could contribute by generating a sustainable supply of gas. The EU-funded WAS2VAL project focuses on the introduction of the new solution into the market.
Objective
The treatment of sewage sludge, the by-product generated during wastewater treatment, represents one of the biggest problems for small and medium sized wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), due to the adoption of stringent rules towards resource valorization and the minimization of adverse effects on the environment. Besides it entails high costs (CAPEX and OPEX) for the plants. This situation is pushing WWTPs to seek urgently for cost-efficient, ecological and clean disposal solutions for their sewage sludge.
TreaTech, a Swiss based private company, has developed a unique sewage sludge treatment technology – A catalytic hydrothermal gasification (HTG) system - that can convert different types of liquid wastes that are typically incinerated or landfilled into useful products including biogas, clean water, and mineral salts, which can be further upgraded into various phosphorus-based products (e.g. fertilizers).
TREATECH is disrupting the Wastewater Treatment market by providing a solution for sewage sludge treatment with 40% lower CAPEX, 50% lower OPEX, and 94% lower CO2 emissions than equivalent technologies while requiring 71% less space. Whereas anaerobic digestion converts sewage into renewable gas over a matter of weeks, our technology only requires a few minutes to generate up to 80% more renewable gas.
The commercialization of our HTG units will have a great impact in the growth of our company, reaching €535 million of revenues, €126 million of profits and leveraging the creation of 36 new jobs by 2028. We expect to process 161,310 tons of sewage sludge disposal by 2028, reaching around 22% share of the Swiss market and 1% of the European market share.
The implementation of our technology into the market, will contribute to reduce by 2030, 163,000 tons of CO2eq emissions while recycling added value products: 126,000 tons of clean water, 10,000 tons of Phosphorus and 475Gwh of biogas.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
1027 LONAY
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.