It could be a game changer for the waste water industry: sewage sludge, which is a biogenic waste from waste water treatment process representing a wide spread disposal problem all over Europe, can be converted into valuable products for agriculture by Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC).
The recent report of Polish company Mikrobiotech confirmed the TerraNova@ultra process will generate products that meet the requirements for organic and organic-mineral fertilizer and soil conditioner in Poland. This will greatly support the ongoing efforts for approval by the Polish Minster of Agriculture and Rural Development to close local value chains and avoid imports of mineral fertilizers.
Furthermore, the study underlined that the Hydrochar, the solid fraction of the HTC process, can also be utilized as biofuel. The demand for this renewable substitute of fossil fuel is strongly increasing by industrial users like cement kilns or asphalt production.