Bringing waste to life
A method and choice of technical solution to recycle
industrial waste streams to new commodities

Waste-to-x
A method and choice of technical solution to recycle
industrial waste streams to new commodities

Waste Streams and Commodities

Regenerative businesses replace an input commodity with a waste stream. Industrial waste streams are well-suited for the task, as they are often available locally in abundant and stable quantity and with reasonable quality. Thus, the waste streams are, or can be converted to, a tangible and useful resource. Conversion to a commodity valorizes the waste stream. The use of the commodity in our projects monetizes it.

However, waste-based commodities are bulky and compared to their value. Some, such as CO₂ from flue gases, would necessitate costly conversions to allow transport (in the example of CO₂, the conversion would be liquefaction, an expensive and energy-intensive process).

Therefore, the waste to life methodology must usually be deployed locally. WA3RM’s Regenergy businesses are typically within a few kilometers of the host industry. In academic literature, a collaboration of businesses in close proximity sharing a resource is called Industrial Symbiosis.

The waste streams WA3RM is currently working with are heat, CO₂ from flue gases, various sludges and nutrients in wastewater. WA3RM maintains a substantial network of partners and researchers connected to waste streams as diverse as sewage and orange peels. WA3RM Fund Management AB’s inital fund WA3RM Regenergy Developer Fund I is currently financing regenerative businesses.

WASTE STREAMS CURRENTLY BEING RECYCLED IN WA3RM PROJECTS

Water

Sludge &
Waste water

Heat energy

Carbon dioxide

Technology and Solutions

WA3RM continually seeks out regenerative technologies. There are a great many already identified. WA3RM is primarily interested in proven technologies, probably previously not run on waste streams. WA3RM also works with technologies in late stages (as a risk mitigation measure) of development to be deployed within existing or planned regenerative business to add regenerative value. Additionally, WA3RM participates in limited R&D efforts to evaluate the applicability of technologies for bringing waste to life.

Technology solutions

WA3RM continually searches for technologies that could profit from using a waste stream as a primary input.
The usefulness of a technology in creating value from waste may depend on local market conditions, such as scarcity of a resource and abundance of a waste resource.
Established technologies (TRL9) are preferred, although they need not previously been applied using waste resources
Complementary technologies that may improve an industrial symbiosis can be lower TRL, if the symbiosis is not dependent on them to be established (e.g. CO2)

Technology operators

It is important to attract the best possible technology operator. The best operator delivers:

Maximum output from the resources, leading to best sustainability performance
Maximum value of production by virtue of market position
Financiability
Long-term organisational capacity, independent of individuals

Technology and solution that provides comparative advantages in the Nordic market

WA3RM’s most developed business cases are based on re-use of low-grade waste heat. Low-grade heat enables and enhances biological processes, allowing many forms of production of food, feed and fuel. Temperatures as low as 20° can be useful to augment growth in fish farms with cold-water species, whereas tropical species typically require 30°. Space heating can be driven with waste heat at 40°, although there are technical, economic and even legal hurdles. All of these ultra-low-temperature business cases are best in cool climate conditions, as ambient temperatures higher than the process temperature may require cooling to avoid harming process organisms. For these reasons, the focus for low-grade heat is food production in cool climates.

Similarly, many technologies are driven by a temperature difference, e.g., to drive a phase shift or chemical reactions. In such cases, access to free cooling creates value for waste heat, with lower cooling temperatures enabling lower heat temperatures to be valorised.

Tech portfolio

Food

Greenhouses
Fish farms
Feedstock
Recycling of nutrients

Water

Water treatment
Water recycling
Desalination

Energy

Biogas
Sorptive cooling
ORC
Dark fermentation H2
Heat

Industry

Bio-plastics
Bio-char
Oxygen, nitrogen separation
Ultra pure water

Tech portfolio

Food

• Greenhouses

• Fish farms

• Feedstock

• Recycling of nutrients

Water

• Water treatment

• Water recycling

• Desalination

Energy

• Biogas

• Sorptive cooling

• ORC

• Dark fermentation H2

• Heat

Industry

• Bio-plastics

• Bio-char

• Oxygen, nitrogen separation

• Ultra pure water

References and Publications

References

Repro Food

RePro Food is short for “Recirculating Production and Processing of Vegetables and Fish” (in Swedish “Kretsloppsbaserad produktion och förädling av grönsaker och fisk”, a 20 MSEK development project with eight partners supported by Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA), project reference number 2015-04412. The project ran from 2015-11-02 to 2017-04-30. Below are final reports

Final Report

Investment memo

Investment calculus

Greenhouse report

Innovations

Heat recycling report

Fish farm report

Research report

Fish poop

The project idea is to develop detailed design of the recycling system between fish farming and tomato cultivation in an innovation process.

Final report

Industrial Carbon Dioxide Recycling

The project’s goal is to lay the foundation for the optimal carbon dioxide extraction system from industrial flue gases, including separation from flue gases, transport, and application in greenhouses.

Final report

Climate Roadmap Höganäs AB

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Höganäs AB
https://www.hoganas.com/en/sustainability-report-2019/climate/climate-roadmap-2045/

Publications

Peer-reviewed academic publications and papers

Parker, Thomas (2021) Call to Action – Food Production in Industrial Symbiosis.
10.19080/ARTOAJ.2021.25.556317
https://juniperpublishers.com/artoaj/pdf/ARTOAJ.MS.ID.556317.pdf

Parker, Thomas & Svantemark, Maria. (2019). Resilience by industrial symbiosis? A discussion on risk, opportunities and challenges for food production in the perspective of the food-energy-water nexus. Sustainable Earth. 2. 10.1186/s42055-019-0016-7. https://sustainableearth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42055-019-0016-7″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>https://sustainableearth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42055-019-0016-7

Parker, T. and Kiessling, A. (2016), Low-grade heat recycling for system synergies between waste heat and food production, a case study at the European Spallation Source. Energy Sci Eng, 4: 153–165. doi:10.1002/ese3.113 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ese3.113/full

Seidel, M., E., J., R., G., J., S., P., S. & Parker, T. (2015). Improving the energy efficiency of accelerator facilities. In: 6th International Particle Accelerator Conference, Richmond, VA, USA, 2015-05-03. http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5385195/file/5385221.pdf

Parker, T. & Peck, P. (2014). Greening for Bosons. In: 55th ICFA Advanced Beam Dynamics Workshop on High Luminosity Circular e+e– Colliders – Higgs Factory (HF2014), Beijing, 2014-10-09. http://indico.ihep.ac.cn/event/4221/other-view?view=standard

Stadlmann, J., Gehring, R., Jensen, E., Parker, T., Seidel, M. & Spiller, P. (2014). Energy Effciency of Particle Accelerators: A Networking Effort within the EuCard2 Program. In: 5th International Particle Accelerator Conference, Dresden, Germany, 2014-06-15. http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/AccelConf/IPAC2014/papers/thpri102.pdf

Parker, T. (2013). Sustainable Accelerators. In: EuCARD’13, CERN, Geneva, 2013-06-12. https://indico.cern.ch/event/234798/session/15/contribution/40/material/slides/1.pdf

Kiessling, A. & Parker, T. (2014) System Synergies between Waste Heat and Food Production, a case study at the European Spallation Source, Energy Systems Conference, London, U.K.. http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5463199/file/5463210.pptx http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5463199/file/5463208.docx

Weisend, J., Darve, C., Gallimore, S., Hees, W., Jurns, J., Köttig, T., Ladd, P., Molloy, S., Parker, T. & Wang, X. (2014). Status of the ESS Cryogenic System. In: Joint Conference of the Transactions of the Cryogenic Engineering Conference (CEC) / Transactions of the International Cryogenic Materials Conference, Anchorage, AK, June 17-21, 2013. American Institute of Physics. 633-638. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4860761.

Peggs, S. (ed) ESS Technical Design Report, ESS-doc-274, April 23, 2013, ISBN 978-91-980173-2-8, 650 p. https://europeanspallationsource.se/sites/default/files/downloads/2017/09/TDR_online_ver_all.pdf

Parker, T., Andersson-Ek, P., Bengtssson, R., Blücher, A., Didriksson, M., Eriksson, R., Fröjd, C., Gesterling, M., Gierow, M., Indebetou, F., Jensen, F., Jurns, J., Lindström, E., Lundgren, D., Nilsson, M., Persson, J., Persson, T., Renntun, M., Stenlund, J., Strömberg, S., Strandberg, G., Stråth, N., Swartling-Jung, M., Wiegert, M. & Österback, R. (2013). ESS Energy Design Report. ESS reports, ESS-0001761. European Spallation Source ESS AB. https://europeanspallationsource.se/sites/default/files/files/document/2017-09/20130131_ess_edr.pdf

Parker, T. (2013). The view from below – a management system case study from a meaning-based view of organization. Journal of Cleaner Production, 53 81-90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.04.002

Peggs, S. (ed) ESS Conceptual Design Report, ESS reports, ESS-2012-001, 6 Feb 2012, ISBN 978-91-980173-0-4, 240 p. https://europeanspallationsource.se/sites/default/files/downloads/2017/09/CDR_final_120206.pdf

Parker, T. (2011). Cutting Science’s electricity bill. Nature, 480 315-316. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v480/n7377/full/480315a.html

Energy for Sustainable Science workshop 1-5
https://erf-aisbl.eu/?page_id=193

Headquarter

WA3RM AB
Drottninggatan 34
211 41 Malmö
info@wa3rm.com

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Waste streams and commodities

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Bringing waste to life

Waste-to-x

Waste Streams and Commodities

WASTE STREAMS CURRENTLY BEING RECYCLED IN WA3RM PROJECTS

Technology and Solutions

Tech portfolio

Food

Greenhouses

Fish farms

Feedstock

Recycling of nutrients

Water

Water treatment

Water recycling

Desalination

Energy

Biogas

Sorptive cooling

ORC

Dark fermentation H2

Heat

Industry

Bio-plastics

Bio-char

Oxygen, nitrogen separation

Ultra pure water

Tech portfolio

Food

• Greenhouses

• Fish farms

• Feedstock

• Recycling of nutrients

Water

• Water treatment

• Water recycling

• Desalination

Energy

• Biogas

• Sorptive cooling

• ORC

• Dark fermentation H2

• Heat

Industry

• Bio-plastics

• Bio-char

• Oxygen, nitrogen separation

• Ultra pure water

References and Publications

References

Repro Food

Fish poop

Industrial Carbon Dioxide Recycling

Climate Roadmap Höganäs AB

Publications

Peer-reviewed academic publications and papers

Headquarter

Quick Links

Policies