AIWW 2017: Cellvation wins Aquatech Innovation Award for recovery of toilet paper
In the presence of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the prestigious Aquatech Innovation Award 2017 was handed out to the Dutch company CirTec that participates in the Cellvation system for the recovery of clean, marketable cellulose fibres from municipal waste water.
The award was handed out to Marite van Veen of CirTec during the Opening Ceremony of the Amsterdam International Water Week on 30 October.
Clean and marketable cellulose fibres recovered from sewage water with the Cellvation process.
Bio-composites
The Cellvation system has been developed by CirTec in partnership with the company KNN. CirTec is responsible for the fine sieve screen separation technology and KNN is responsible for bringing the recovered cellulose fibres to the market.
In The Netherlands a recovery installation based on Cellvation system is already operational at municipal waste water treatment plant Beemster, just north of Amsterdam, where daily 400 kilogramme of pure cellulose is recovered for different kind of applications.
Part of this cellulose is exported to England where it is used as a raw material to produce bio-composite.
High-profile showcase
The Aquatech Innovation Award wants to showcase the high-profile solutions offered by the exhibitors at the Aquatech Amsterdam trade exhibition. From a total of 78 entries 14 were selected as nominees for five different categories.
CirTec was selected by the jury as overall winner.
‘It is a good example of resource and is a perfect example of the circular economy in action’, comments jury chairman Cees Buisman (right on top photo), scientific director of Wetsus water technology centre.
Proud overall winner Marite van Veen of CirTec.
Less sludge
The cited benefits of recovering the remains of the toilet papers when the sewage water enters the treatment plant included a reduction in energy and chemical costs for sewage treatment, along with a reduction in amount of sludge that is produced.
Furthermore, the cellulose is used as a technical product in applications such as road construction, offering an outlet for the marketable products derived from the Cellvation process.
‘It also means you have to cut down fewer trees, and the enormous amount of energy and chemicals that are used to convert a tree into cellulose can also be saved’, adds Buisman.
Other winners
• category: Innovation – not yet to market
Countinuous counterflow adsorber water treatment, Blücher, Germany
• category: Process control technology & Process automation
Satellite remote sensing leak detection, Utilis, Israel
• category: Transport & storage
Picoturbine water network energy recovery, Technoturbines, Spain
• category: Waste water treatment
Cellvation cellulose recovery, CirTec, the Netherlands
• category: Water treatment
Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis treatment technology, Desalitech via Lenntech, the Netherlands
• special mention
DaaS (Data as a Service) for Water Quality Monitoring, s::can Messtechnik, Germany
This news item was originally published on the website of Aquatech Amsterdam.
Read also on this website
• Opening AIWW 2017: Dutch PM calls for better reflection of true values of water, 31 October 2017
• Update on Amsterdam International Water Week 2017, 28 October 2017
More information
Amsterdam International Water Week
www.internationalwaterweek.com
A recent BBC news report on CirTec.