In the United Kingdom (UK), CCm Technologies Ltd in partnership with Severn Trent, the country's second-largest water company, has been awarded approximately £1 million (≈ EUR 1.19 million) in funding from the Carbon Trust and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to explore new sustainable ways to recycle wastewater and convert it into a commercial product.
CCm Technologies Ltd., previously CCm Research Ltd., is an award-winning cleantech company, focused on resource optimisation, including Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU). CCm’s technology converts captured carbon dioxide (CO2) and other waste streams such as ammonia and phosphate into stable value-added materials with multiple uses across global priority sectors of food, agriculture, advanced materials, and energy storage.
Winning this award alongside our collaboration with CCm Technologies is a first step in building a strong innovation partnership and we’re looking forward to working with them. It will be the first trial of the technology at this scale in the UK, said Paul Knuckle, external funding lead at Severn Trent.
The project focuses on a new process, developed by CCm Technologies, which uses captured CO2 to stabilise, nitrogen, phosphate and organic chemicals held within waste streams at Severn Trent, turning them into sustainable plant nutrients.
This stabilisation process significantly reduces greenhouse gas GHG) emissions on-site and the carbon-free heat co-generated in CCm Technologies’s proprietary process will be used to reduce energy consumption across the site, so aiding Severn Trent in their drive toward Zero Carbon operations.
This is a meaningful breakthrough that will allow our technology to demonstrate the release of significant plant nutrient resources held by Severn Trent and use them to lock captured carbon back into the soil, paving the way for greater sustainable agriculture in the UK, commented Professor Peter Hammond, Chief Technology Officer, and co-founder of CCm Technologies.
Develop a world-first treatment solution
The funding will go towards developing an entirely new solution for treating wastewater in the sewage process. This pioneering approach, in partnership with CCm Technologies, is a world-first for the wastewater sector and will substantially reduce the amount of energy needed, as well as increasing the quality.
As part of the collaboration, there is the potential to develop an enhanced fertiliser product for agricultural and/or horticultural applications, potentially creating new commercial opportunities for Severn Trent.
We are really excited about this award from the Carbon Trust and BEIS because it’s a first for Severn Trent and CCm Technologies. We’ve demonstrated how well aligned our wastewater recycling ambition is to the government energy efficiency strategy and how we can support the circular economy with the potential to produce value from waste, said Paul Knuckle, external funding lead at Severn Trent.
