Finalist award: £49,990
Winner award: £426,700
Led by: ICMEA-UK Ltd and partners (Aston University and Costain Group PLC)
REVAR takes contaminated wastewater and extracts the energy content of the organic matter (suspended solids) in the water. The outputs are:
1. Cleaner water
2. Energy, to sustainably and cost-efficiently run wastewater processes, with a significant energy surplus.
REVAR is a fast-acting technology that combines two hydrothermal (hot-pressurised water) processes to achieve high conversion efficiency. With REVAR, conversion of organics in wastewater is achieved in seconds and minutes rather than days and weeks. The aim is to use REVAR to replace existing biological processing of wastewater streams in the water industry (Fig1.4) that currently consumes 1-2% of UK electricity (UtilityWeek, 2021)
ICMEA-UK was announced as one of 10 winners in the Water Discovery Challenge on 20 February 2024 – read more in the announcement blog.
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We have continued to work on our experimental lab rig in order to test and improve the REvAR process. This is supported by work being done at Aston University which will enable us to optimise the REvAR process, which rapidly converts sewage sludge into fuel gas and clean water. Results so far are encouraging, and we have shown that we can break down sludge and produce fuel gases. We are using lessons learnt to continually improve the process. Alongside this we have begun to design our Pilot Plant which will aim to scale up the process in a containerized system. This work is being supported by Costain Group plc. Over the coming months, we intend to run the Pilot Plant to provide significant data on the performance of the REvAR process and demonstrate the scalability of the technology.
