Biogas technology has a key role in recycling the nutrients in sludges and in the production of renewable fuel as part of energy-efficient sludge processing. The processing of wastewater sludge and recovery of nutrients in concentrated, high-quality forms has been an active subject of research in Finland and globally in recent years. Advanced processing methods often call for major investments, which justifies centralized processing something the JÄRKKI project aims to explore.
With the support of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, the two-year JÄRKKI (Centralized recycling of nutrients in wastewater sludges) project is being implemented in collaboration with Nordic gas major Gasum Oy and Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK).
Wastewater sludges are an important resource, and we are pursuing new processing solutions and applications, especially in the utilization of nutrients, said Ari Suomilammi, Director, Biogas production, Gasum.
The project seeks to combine new wastewater sludge processing technologies into centralized processing concepts and will use lifecycle assessment to evaluate their environmental sustainability.
Logistics have an important role in the centralized processing of sludges and the project is using logistics modeling to look for suitable plant sizes and locations, said Maritta Kymäläinen, Principal Lecturer at HAMK.
The total cost of the JÄRKKI project is around EUR 245 000, of which the Ministry of the Environment has granted funding of EUR 98 000.
A holistic perspective is called for in sludge processing where existing and emerging technologies can be combined in the best possible way taking into account the logistics relating to the logistics of both the sludges and end products, said Viljami Kinnunen, Senior Development Engineer, Gasum.
