H2020 project Run4Life

This year, Run4Life demonstration sites Oceanhamnen (Helsingborg) and Nieuwe Dokken (Ghent) again received awards for their innovative approach towards wastewater.

At the Nordic Edge Expo in Stavanger, the City of Helsingborg was announced as the winner of the third edition of the Smart City Implementation Award 2020 (SMAVARD) for the three-pipe wastewater system in Oceanhamnen. This was the third award for the City of Helsingborg and the Oceanhamnen demo-site. In 2019 the City of Helsingborg won the Sustainable Future Prize and in 2018 the NSVA, City of Helsingborg and Marinette Hagman won the “Sewage and Circularity Prize 2018” for their joint effort to implement and promote source separation wastewater systems.

In Ghent, the Nieuwe Dokken district has won 3 awards this year, a great recognition. Project partner DuCoop with demo site the Nieuwe Dokken were awarded silver in the category ‘Business Process’ of the European Business Awards for the Environment and also gained silver in the Belgian Business Awards for the Environment. Furthermore they were the National winner of the Energy Globe Award. In 2017 they received the Climate Trophy of the Belgian ‘Radical Innovators’ competition.

Project partners Aqualia and LeAF will present at the IWA Nutrient Recovery & Removal Conference that will be held online on 1-3 September.

The ICT4Water Cluster Annual meeting was held online on June 16th, with active participation of project partner Aqualia on behalf of Run4Life. The annual meeting gathered nearly 150 professionals from the smart water community and over 30 member projects and included a session on COVID19 and the relevance to the water sector. A detailed report on the meeting can be found on the ICT4Water website.

The EC Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) facilitated the Annual meeting as also an occasion to give visibility to member projects of the cluster, by offering the option of showcasing project information. Access to the Project Showcase for Run4Life and 11 other projects can be found on the EASME website as part of their meeting report.

On May 5th, project partner Leitat presented Run4Life at the EGU General Assembly 2020, held in the online format Sharing Geosciences Online. Their presentation “Run4Life project: A step forward in NPK recovery from source-separated wastewaters” was one of three highlights in the session “Sustainable phosphorus management and recovery: linking phosphorus and other element/material cycles”, that included 24 presentations on diverse topics concerning the phosphorous cycle and its effects on the environment.

In March, project partner LeAF presented Run4Life at the online Members’ Meeting of the Dutch Nutrient Platform in March, and online at the workshop “What will happen to the sewage sludge in the future” workshop organised by Green Norths project and Waste Refinery in the same month.

At the EGU2020 website you can download the conference presentations of all sessions. The Publications section of our website includes a video of the Green Norths presentation, as well as other viewing and reading material about Run4Life.

The publications overview on the Run4Life website has been updated and expanded.

Here you can find e.g. magazine articles, scientific papers, conference posters and abstracts, project brochures and workshop presentations – all part of the project output!

This month Run4Life held its consortium meeting in the city of Ghent, Belgium, close to project demo-site De Nieuwe Dokken (picture on the left). This time the programme started on Monday December 2nd with a workshop on the Legal and Regulatory aspects of resource recovery from domestic wastewater, with contributions from partners and external stakeholders. At the end of the day, the workshop participants were given the opportunity to see the resource recovery system implemented at the demo site. A report on this Legal and Regulatory Framework Workshop, with a selection of the presentations available for download, can be found here.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the project’s biannual General Assembly was held, in which all Run4Life partners participated. It was kicked off with a Stakeholder Engagement Panel session, in which the participants clearly illustrated the process and the actors involved in realising the innovative resource recovery system in Ghent and the redevelopment area as a whole. The remaining time of the GA, the different work package leaders presented an overview of the project activities and discussed the upcoming work. On Wednesday those partners that did not participate on Monday had the opportunity of a demo-site visit, and they were joined by the Project officer.

An informative breakfast workshop was held on Thursday 14th of November 2019 in Centro de Negocios Porto do Molle (Nigrán). The Run4Life project partners of Aqualia, Zona Franca de Vigo, WE&B and USC had the opportunity to give feedback regarding the inputs generated in the previous workshops (held in 2018 and 2019) that had been implemented together with the Vigo stakeholders. During this workshop the local authorities and media representatives participated by giving their opinion about the project. After a brief explanation of the project and a round of discussion, the participants had the chance to see the pilot plant in operation in the Zona Franca de Vigo building in Porto do Molle. This event took place in the framework of the activities of the project which aim to analyse the social dimensions of resource recovery and the decentralisation of domestic wastewater in each of the four pilot sites.

Project partner DuCoop has started the vacuum collection system at demonstration site “De Nieuwe Dokken” in Ghent, Belgium. This is the first time In Flanders that toilet wastewater is collected by means of a vacuum sewer. Municipal building “Melopee” houses a primary school, a children’s day care facility and the neighbourhood sports hall. Early next year the first 90 apartments will follow, with regular new connections until 2024 at the end of the development. All local wastewater will be treated on-site, recovering valuable resources such as phosphorous fertiliser, energy and clean water for industrial reuse.

More information about this milestone can be found on DuCoop’s website (in Dutch).

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a central technology in the Run4Life approach, as it is key in achieving the recovery of nutrients from domestic wastewater. In June this year, Run4Life consortium partners Aqualia, Leitat, USC, LeAF and WU participated in Delft in the 16th IWA World Congress on Anaerobic Digestion, one of the largest AD conferences worldwide. Merijn Moerland (WU) attracted great attention with his a poster on the hyper-thermophilic anaerobic treatment of black water for recovery of nutrients and energy. Eduard Borràs (Leitat) participated with an oral presentation about the experimental results gained with nitrogen recovery from anaerobically digested blackwater using bioelectrochemical systems. The main results of the operation of the AnMBR treating toilet wastewater at the Vigo demosite were presented by Nicolás Morales (Aqualia).

Taking advantage of the presence of international experts at AD16, meetings were organized with several of them – some already engaged with Run4Life through their role as members of the project’s Scientific Advisory Board. Interacting and discussing about the Run4Life project and its key aspects, interesting feedback was obtained that is being taken in mind for the ongoing and future project activities. Throughout the congress, Run4Life postcards and bookmarks were handed out to interested people, inviting them to visit the project website and maintain their connection to the project.

Project partner Aqualia presented Run4Life during the 3rd European Nutrient Event “Towards Circular Economy of Phosphorus and other nutrients” taking place at the ECOMONDO expo in Rimini, Italy on November 9th. Key nutrient research projects were presented, followed by group discussion on the future challenges in nutrient research, development, innovation and implementation.