ALL-Streams HTO

ALL-Streams HTO

Led by: Anglian Water

Partners: Atkins Realis, Cetogenix Ltd, Cranfield University, Severn Trent Water, Thames Water, Uisce Éireann

See project updates on the Anglian Water website

In recent years, the water industry has faced a seemingly growing level of concern about its approach to land application of bioresources. To move to an alternative, there needs to be a thorough understanding, through scenario testing and technology evaluation, of the most feasible alternatives.

Two recent reports highlight the role that Advanced Thermal Conversion (ATC) processes could have in making bioresources an important part of the UK’s energy resilience and Net Zero strategy. Hydrothermal Oxidation (HTO) is an Advanced Thermal Conversion (ATC) process that seeks to replicate the conditions deep under the earth’s surface. This project will explore the value proposition of HTO as an alternative bioresource strategy for the water industry in England & Wales. As an alternative to sludge-to-land, HTO would reduce or eliminate agricultural pollution risk, reduce energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions, whilst also reducing road transport resulting in lower costs and further greenhouse gas emission reductions.

“In this groundbreaking project, paving the way for industry circularity we will be replicating the conditions that occur deep under the Earth’s surface to treat biowaste and recover valuable natural resources, benefitting the environment and society.” – Shaunna Berendsen, Chief Innovation Officer, Anglian Water

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Update from the project (January 2025)

The MNbS programme is on track; we reached the first key milestone in September with the close out of the Initial Scoping and Review stage. This stage focused on extensive research and engagement to understand the current state of the NbS landscape across the regions and workstreams. The process deepened understanding of the barriers to mainstreaming NbS and informed refinement of the programme scope. Findings from this review are now available (see briefing notes attached).  We built essential collaborative relationships across programme partners, wider stakeholders, regulators, and Government. Collaboration has been actively driven (as with all UU-led Ofwat projects) through workshops and the roll out of a collaboration survey. Key insights from the first survey have been implemented to improve programme delivery, showing benefits in the second.  The project undertook a collaborative review of NbS in the PR24 Draft Determination, and provided recommendations for how NbS could be upscaled at Final Determination. We note the value of NbS in AMP8 increased from £2.2bn at DD to £3.3bn at FD.   We have now entered the next stage of the programme, focused on identifying barriers and enablers to NbS and setting up to test recommendations in Phase 2, which begins in October 2025. 

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Resources

For more information on ALL-Streams HTO take a look at the following resources:

• The project has shared its learnings via a Spring Showcase event. Watch the event recording and find other learnings and materials in Spring’s Knowledge Transfer library.