Making money from sewage

The UK is to get its first nappy recycling plant, while imaginatively titled sewage-to-energy firm Eco-Solids is flush with new funding

The UK is to get its first disposable nappy recycling plant which is designed to turn used nappies into plastic, cladding and roof tiles.

According to Guardian reports, Canadian firm Knowaste is to invest over £20m in a new UK plant near Birmingham over the next five years. The facility is expected to recycle about 30,000 tonnes of nappies per year, or about four per cent of the 750,000 tonnes of nappy waste created in the UK each year.

The company claims the plant will recover 84 per cent of the material used to make disposable nappies, cutting the amount of waste that goes to landfill and saving energy in the process.

In other excrement-related news, clean tech investment firm Low Carbon Accelerator (LCA) has invested a further £750,000 in sewage-to-energy firm Eco-Solids.

The funding, which follows an initial investment of £850,000 that saw LCA take a 45 per cent stake in the company, will be used to pay for the installation of leased commercial systems and expanded marketing and product development activities.

Eco-Solids provides two technologies designed to bolster yields from sewage-to-energy power plants. Its Cellruptor technology accelerates cell disintegration to increase the amount of methane that is released, while its ES-Process lime stabilisation process destroys pathogens in sewage resulting in the creation of material that can be safely used to make construction blocks and aggregate.

The company claims to have developed a strong sales pipeline for both the products and recently secured its first sale for a new landfill treatment process in the Philippines. Dr Steve Mahon, chief investment officer for LCA and a board member of Eco-Solids, said that the company was now well positioned to address a number of different sectors, including sewage-to-energy companies, biofuel developers and landfill treatment firms, and was looking to expand internationally.