How wastewater utilities recover resources for revenue
Technologies now exist to recover resources from wastewater such as ammonium sulfate. But how does it actually work and what challenges does it present?
Wastewater has a mix of organic and inorganic wastes that utilities across the country and globe treat and remove from incoming sewer flows to produce clean water that reenters the environment. As technology has improved, wastewater utilities have identified resources in wastewater that they can recover to repurpose for its own needs or repackage as a revenue stream, such as ammonium sulfate (shown in the thumbnail).
Eric Kadaj is senior director of market and applications development for Energy Recovery, a company that specializes in wastewater resource recovery. He explains how technologies and processes differ from industrial to municipal applications and the kinds of resources that are commonly recovered.
Bob Crossen is the editorial director for the Endeavor Business Media Water Group, which publishes WaterWorld, Wastewater Digest and Stormwater Solutions. Crossen graduated from Illinois State University in Dec. 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in German and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. He worked for Campbell Publications, a weekly newspaper company in rural Illinois outside St. Louis for four years as a reporter and regional editor.
