Overcoming Barriers to Adoption of New Wastewater Treatment Options

The project “Alternative Approaches to Phosphorus Removal on Rural Wastewater Treatment Works (Alt-P)” is exploring chemical free options for phosphorus removal, to reduce the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment, without negatively impacting water quality. It is funded by the Ofwat Water Breakthrough Challenge and is being led by United Utilities in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth, Southern Water, Wessex Water, Power & Water, Evergreen, Hydro Industries and Kolina. There are three work packages examining different technologies to remove and recover phosphorus from wastewater at small rural sewage works. The University of Portsmouth and Southern Water are leading on WP3 concerned with reactive media. “Reactive media” are a range of different materials which attract and bind phosphorus to their surface, enabling them to be placed in a simple filter bed or wetland. As part of this project the team are identifying and testing the performance of media in the laboratory and in a unique containerised system which can be moved between wastewater treatment plants. In addition, the team are developing standard guidelines for the design and costing of the technology.