Resource recovery from wastewater 'makes economic sense'

Resources recovered from wastewater could help to combat rising commodity prices. According to Lux Research, recovering materials like oils and precious metals is now incredibly feasible and could help to reduce costs.

The recovery of industrial fats, oils and greases (FOG), oil and precious metals is an incredibly attractive prospect for industry, especially as the value of such metals have increased by more than 250 per cent and crude oil prices have increased threefold in the last ten years. The recovery of FOG is driven by the fact that biodiesel now has a larger share of the market but has a restricted feedstock supply.

However, not all materials found in wastewater make economic sense to be retrieved, according to Lux. With current prices being low, it does not make financial sense to recover phosphate or lithium, the firm's 'Recovering Valuable resources from wastewater' report found.

Tess Murray, research associate at Lux Research and author of the study, said: "Many current wastewater streams contain resources worth billions of dollars of lost product and lost opportunity. As the value of resources rises, recovery technologies are beginning to make sense for even parts-per-million traces of materials such as precious metals and oil."  

According to the report, several key industries stand to benefit from investment in material recovery from wastewater.

Firms using fracking - hydraulic fracturing - techniques for the extraction of crude oil are currently without best practice for the recovery of oil. As a result, between six and ten per cent of extracted oil is lost via wastewater. The report suggests that by investing up to $7 million (£4.12 million), companies could recover enough oil to make the cost back within 12 months.

The study also suggests that biodiesel firms have a lot to gain from investing in recovery technology. As the biodiesel market has increased from 14 million gallons in 2003 to 17.1 billion just ten years later, it could make good use of FOG recovery. New technologies could enable FOG-water mixtures to be processed and converted in soaps, animal food and other inedible products.