Southern joins EU-funded project looking to extract resources from wastewater

Southern Water has joined forces with several European companies as part of a project focusing on harnessing resources and energy from its wastewater treatment works.

Under the New Energy and Resources from Urban Sanitation project, which has €8 million of European Union funding, Southern will be seeking to grow its understanding of recovering nutrients from its treatment works to grow crops and reduce negative impacts on aquatic plants and animals.

Research and development project manager at Southern Water, Paul Reynolds, said: "We're looking at different technologies and zero-waste options that will essentially allow us to take energy and resources from our wastewater treatment works, and use it to benefit other things, like growing crops.

The project includes water, wastewater and academic institutes from across Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK.