Boston, MA– While it’s long been simply an expensive nuisance to be disposed of, sewage sludge from wastewater can actually be an untapped source of energy, phosphorus, and other products. As a result, utilities and water treatment facilities have begun to explore technologies designed to help extract the value from wastewater sludge. As these technologies mature, the market opportunity for resource recovery will grow from $25B today to $45B in 2020, according to a new Lux Research report titled “Technologies Turn Waste into Profit.”
Treatment and handling of sludge can represent between 20% and 50% of a wastewater treatment facility’s costs, which has fueled interest in technologies that extract energy, minerals or other materials from sludge to either help offset treatment costs or even turn a profit. Technologies focused on recovering energy from sludge show the most promising value proposition, according to the report, and are expected to capture 64% of the overall market in 2020.
“Processing and disposal of wastewater sludge is something every utility has to deal with, and the costs associated with the task are rising due to more stringent regulations,” said Heather Landis, an analyst for Lux Research and the report’s lead author. “We expect more utilities to search for and adopt technologies that can help offset these costs and extract the value hidden in wastewater sludge.”
To evaluate the technologies …http://www.wateronline.com/article.mvc/The-45B-In-The-Sewers-Energy-And-Resources-0001
