Summer School // POWERSTEP Summer School on Energy Positive Wastewater Treatment
The POWERSTEP project, in collaboration with the TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology), is organising a Summer School this July in Vienna, Austria. The POWERSTEP Summer School aims at distributing expertise from innovative and cutting-edge research in the field of energy-positive wastewater treatment. In the EU-funded project POWERSTEP, a consortium of 15 partners is working together to create a real paradigm shift in the wastewater sector. Brought together by the POWERSTEP Summer School, a variety of these experts, coming from research institutions and industry, will illustrate the four distinct interconnected strategies investigated in POWERSTEP to turn wastewater treatment plants into net energy producers.
Where and when
Vienna 6-7 July 2017Background
Municipal wastewater in Europe contains a potential chemical energy of 87,500 GWh per year in its organic fraction, which is equivalent to 12 large power stations! However, due to the currently applied technologies and related energy loss at each process step, wastewater treatment in Europe consumes instead the equivalent of more than 2 power stations. While many operators are targeting incremental energy efficiency towards energy neutrality, recent studies have shown that with novel process schemes sewage treatment plants could actually become a new source of renewable energy, this without compromising the treatment performance.About the Programme
These demonstrated strategies include:- Carbon extraction for energy recovery into biogas
- Nitrogen removal in the main stream
- Biogas valorisation and efficient energy management
- Nitrogen management in side stream