Self-supporting biofuel sludge pellet producing system for small and medium sized sewage plants

Project Information

InnoPellet

Grant agreement ID: 711540

DOI

10.3030/711540

Project closed

EC signature date 21 March 2016

Start date 1 March 2016

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 2 158 500,00

EU contribution

€ 1 510 950,00

Coordinated by

INNOWASTE KORLATOLT FELELOSSEGU TARSASAG
Hungary

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - InnoPellet (Self-supporting biofuel sludge pellet producing system for small and medium sized sewage plants)

Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The deployment and treatment of municipal wastewater sewage sludge is a worldwide common problem not only from an environmental and health point of view, but also from cost-effectiveness side. InnoWaste is a company made of passionate entrepreneurs, specialized in a burning technology and processing sewage sludge. Our goal is to establish a significant global footprint in sewage sludge processing as a service for the society by offering a pioneering, beneficial service as for service providers and as for service customers as a result of low cost sewage sludge treatment, burning material creation, ash as secondary raw material. The origin of the INNOPELLET idea came from an earlier developed burning technology and recognition of high heating value of dry sewage sludge and the solution for processing with low added energy input.

We have developed a successful track record and have become established as a supplier of agricultural and wastewater treatment machineries. However we are striving to increase the sales and satisfy the rising demands due to our machines being custom made. Recently, our future customers’ demands have been also widening towards sewage sludge treatment technologies. They are requiring environmentally sound, but energy-efficient solutions in order to prevent the costs of sludge management or treatment. After discussions with our customers we have come to the conclusion that the best way to increase our productivity and satisfy more municipality customers would be to make our system as compact and easy-to-assemble as possible. This would mean we can serial produce INNOPELLET machineries that would speed up the service and reduce the price.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

INNOPELLET started the 1st of March 2016 and with a 12 month extension it finished in February 2019. At the beginning, we were focusing on the fine-tuning of our system specification to finalize and validate our concept. After this phase, we have started the re-design of the system for getting prepared to serial production. All above were summarized in a series of design states, starting with basic design, followed by operational design and concluded with final design. In parallel, we have initiated the component sourcing activities for those parts that do not need custom built or manufacture. We demonstrated the operational stability and applied for certifications to enable the commercialisation of INNOPELLET machinery.

With the project we also have the opportunity to more focus on our business development and analyzed our market in details. We had the chance to even better identify the need of our customers and developed the commercial plan focusing on the exploitation of our new INNOPELLET product.

Besides, we have participated in several exhibitions and conferences showing our new product. We focused on marketing activities as well: defined our new communication plan, improved the corporate identity and updated our new website www.innowaste.eu

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

There is a great number of small- and medium sized sewage plants in and out of the European Union that cannot pass over urban sewage sludge for agricultural use in sufficient proportion (less than 50% in the EU), therefore the management of these sewage plants usually ask and receive permissions from environmental authorities for disposing the communal sludge in disused mines or dumps. Instead of disposal and landfilling – that regularly causes pollution of natural water resources – it would be more beneficial to produce sludge pellets.

Such experiences drove us to create the INNOPELLET technology, a self-supporting biofuel pellet producing system for treating communal sewage sludge that is economical in case of small scale production too.

The development of more and more strict European legislations towards a more sustainable and cleaner handling of urban wastewater creates two types of demands: (1) effective handling and management of sludge coming from municipal wastewater treatment plants without the need to pay costly fines or fees (2) provide additional side-products from the sludge treatment that can be used for own purposes of the plant (e.g.: heating) as integral part of the new circular economy strategy of the European Union

The demand from end-users, especially the needs coming from the EurAsian markets, is continuously increasing, urbanization is closely linked to the problem of managing and treating municipal wastewater treatment sludges, as a result of which demand towards environmentally sound solutions is also increasing. The product standardization in one hand could help to fulfil customer needs quicker on a reasonable price. On the other hand, it gives the possibility to target new segments and new potential customers, other than the municipality segment.

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