The challenge
Global consumption of water and goods is not only draining our planet’s resources, it is also pressuring the treatment systems that ensure proper separation of harmful components and disposal of the remaining material. Treatment processes for wastewater, bio-waste and solid waste are often highly energy consuming and pose a growing expense for local governments running the treatment facilities.
The future
There is a great potential for resource recovery and energy production within processes such as wastewater treatment and waste incineration. Harnessing this potential holds great economic incentives as the right treatment processes could create new sources of energy and help solve several challenges, including landfill pollution as well as soil and groundwater contamination.