Sewage contains valuable substances that can be used as raw materials for biobased products. However, in North West Europe this potential is hardly exploited yet. The Interreg North-West Europe project WOW! aims to make the transition to a more circular approach by matching supply and demand of cellulose, lipids and PHA bioplastics from sewage. The international consortium consists of partners from the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

The Project WOW! aims to demonstrate the recovery of carbon-based raw materials from sewage for a sustainable production of biobased products. One of these raw materials is PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoate) which is a group of biopolymers produced from bacteria as reserve substances. From this raw material a production of bioplastic is possible. In this presentation we tell you how we do this.

Get a better understanding of the technical and economic aspects of making bioplastics from sewage and the key parameters that affect the production costs. This presentation is intended for biobased enthusiasts, operators, investors and policy makers to help them in planning, create business models, make strategies and policies.

The composition of the influent differs with each sewage treatment plant. To get a first idea whether an influent is suitable as an input for the biobased products that are researched in Wow!, a Decision Support Tool (DST) was created. Based on a few parameters from the sewage treatment plant, the DST gives an indication about the suitability of the influent, about possible effects on other processes in a sewage treatment plant. The DST also gives information on technical, environmental, economic and social aspects of the biobased products. The presentation will explain the DST and show some of the results.