Description:
The Office of Water (OW) has the goal of being a catalyst for fostering the protection and sustainability of water resources in the U.S. and around the globe. It has produced two papers that are intended to help achieve this goal. The first is the March 27, 2013, “Blueprint for Integrating Technology Innovation into the National Water Program.” The second is the April 2014 “Promoting Technology Innovation for Clean and Safe Water: Water Technology Innovation Blueprint—Version 2” (EPA 820-R-14-006).
These papers identify 10 market opportunities for technology innovation. This solicitation addresses two of these opportunities: nutrient recovery and energy recovery. Consequently, EPA is seeking innovative technologies that address the following needs:
- 5A: Resource and/or Energy Recovery: Innovative technologies that can cost-effectively do one or, preferably, both of the following. The ideal technologies will be applicable to both small and large treatment systems.
The technologies should recover potentially valuable resources from wastewater and sewage sludge, such as nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and/or phosphorus, micronutrients, etc.), heavy metals (e.g., copper, zinc, molybdenum, magnesium), precious metals (e.g., palladium, platinum, gold, silver), plasmids, and rare earth elements, and/or produce enough energy from treating the wastewater and sewage sludge to operate the treatment facility on a continuous basis.
