At present, various raw materials are recovered from sewage. Pilots are also underway to enable new ways of recovery or the recovery of other raw materials. However, to what extent do recovered raw materials contribute to a circular chain of raw materials? And what are the climate benefits and environmental gains? STOWA commissioned CE Delft to study the climate impact and environmental costs of eight raw materials that can be recovered from sewage water. This report contains the results of this study.
The study examined the climate impact and environmental costs of eight raw materials that can be recovered from sewage. These include: green gas, CO2, cellulose (both wet and dry fine sieve), phosphoric acid from slurry, struvite (compound of magnesium, ammonium and phosphate), vivianite (compound of iron and phosphate), natural plastic substitutes (Calyda) and Kaumera (biopolymer from Nereda® sludge). A comparison of all raw materials was made based on the current conventional manner of creating these raw materials.
This study is an update of the 2016 study Life Cycle Analysis of Raw Materials from Sewage (STOWA, 2016-22).