Periodic Reporting for period 4 - reNEW (Sustainable cleaning agent and organic fertilizer recovery from sewage sludge)
Reporting period: 2019-05-01 to 2019-10-31
The overall objective of the reNEW project is to commercialize products recovered from sewage sludge through our innovative technology. In our process, the sewage sludge is biologically transformed into a liquid phase which contains volatile fatty acids (VFA) and valuable micro and macro nutrients (NPK), which are recovered. These products represent important market value: VFA as raw material for eco-labelled cleaning agents, and NPK as fertilizer. The aim of this project is the exploitation of the reNEW process, to roll-out the technology all over Europe, enabling the growth of our companies. More specifically, we aim to scale up our process to an industrial level, develop commercialization strategies for both valuable products: eco-friendly cleaner (based on VFA) and fertilisers (NPK). Our target is to create a techno-economic framework in which the return on investment for the reNEW process installation would be less than 3 years.
At the same time, we studied extensively the market for both of our products as well as the competitive sludge treatment technologies. We identified the market segments for the two products, the NPK fertilizer and the VFA based cleaning agents, respectively. We developed a commercialisation strategy. Our market research showed that circularity and sustainability is the most important factors for the environmental conscious customers. We branded our VFA based cleaning products as CYCLE for B2C and CYCLEAN for the B2B market. Successful commercial trials were carried out for CYCLE at DM retail stores in Hungary and at Amazon on-line in the UK. These successful actions confirmed our business concept and proved the market viability of the products.
• Exploitation of high value products from sewage sludge (NPK and VFA)
• Hygienic products
• Economically and environmentally sustainable method for the processing of sewage sludge by creating a product cycle
ReNEW technology will contribute immensely to the circular economy, as it valorises undesired, dangerous waste products of wastewater treatment. Moreover, it has zero carbon footprint on the environment. Our vision is that cities that produce the wastewater can get everything back treated, cleaned in form of products that can be recovered over and over again.