Resource Recovery – Recovered cellulose: from used toilet paper to resource for the biobased economy

Recovery and reuse of raw materials such as cellulose from sewage has been on the agenda of water authorities, technology companies and end-users for many years. Should we reuse resources from sewage? Are we critical enough in the considerations? If we indeed want to recover resources from sewage, it’s time to change gears and speed up the process.

16.00     Opening and welcome by Coos Wessels, CTO CirTec

16.10      Applicability of cellulose in a circular economy, Prof. Dr. Bruce Jefferson

16.30      Critical comments on raw materials from sewage, to be confirmed

16.50      House of Commons debate, moderated  by Prof. Dr. Bruce Jefferson

For this workshop we chose to use this form of debate to elicit a discussion in which all arguments about a predetermined statement will be discussed.

In the room, two rows of chairs are placed opposite each other, in between which the moderator/chairman can move freely. One side is in favour and the opposite side is against a predetermined statement. Who wants to contribute to the discussion has to stand up. Speaking is only allowed when the moderator gives you the floor. Each statement will have a short introduction by the moderator, followed by a discussion of max. 15 minutes.

In this workshop participants are encouraged to openly discuss different points of view. The aim is to create mutual understanding and get all barriers and arguments in the open. The format is as the House of Commons. The statements that will be discussed will be distributed the start of the debate and participants will randomly be asked to argue in favour or against a certain statement. Everyone should therefore be preparing himself or herself as a supporter or as an opponent of the statement. The fact that it doesn’t have to be the participant’s own opinion makes that participants can speak freely and get to think from a different angle.

17.35      Feedback on the session

Speakers

Applicability of cellulose in a circular economy

Speaker
Prof. Dr. Bruce Jefferson

Bio
Professor Bruce Jefferson is a chemical engineer with a BEng and PhD form Loughborough University and joined the staff of Cranfield in Water Sciences in 1997. He was subsequently appointed to the post of Senior Research Fellow in 2003 and the Senior Lecturer in 2006. Current posts incluse visiting positions at RMIT (Australia), University of New South Wales (Australia)

His research interests involve understanding how the underlying process pathways can be better managed to deliver a paradigm shift in how we apply technology for sewage treatment and drinking water production. His current research activities involve work on eg. recovery of resources, anaerobic sewage treatment, low energy processes for nutrient recovery from sewage and advanced oxidation processes. Currently he is working on several research council projects for NERC, EPSRC and EU ont the fate of nanoparticles in sewage sludge, resource recovery and water services of the future.

This session is supported by: