What is the main focus of your Expert Group?
Our Expert Group focuses on material and energy recovery from municipal and industrial wastewater in Europe. We analyse supply—demand dynamics for key materials, such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and critical raw materials and assess the economic and technical viability of recovery technologies.
We evaluate regulatory frameworks, identify innovation gaps, and compare recovery costs to market values. Our aim is to provide actionable recommendations to accelerate recovery adoption, support policy development, and align with the EU’s circular economy and sustainability goals.
What are the opportunities and challenges in your field that the Expert group is addressing?
Resource recovery from wastewater presents a major opportunity to access nutrients and critical raw materials (CRMs) from industrial and municipal streams. Industrial effluents, from mining, desalination, energy, and metal sectors, contain recoverable CRMs. Technologies like chemical precipitation and ash-based phosphorus recovery show potential, especially at scale. However, barriers remain. Low material concentrations limit many recovery processes. High capital and operational costs, uncertain market demand, and fragmented regulations challenge implementation. Recovery technologies often lack scalability, and some processes result in nutrient loss. National policy restrictions can further delay market entry of recovered products. The Expert Group addresses these challenges by identifying viable technologies, enabling policies, and market mechanisms to unlock wastewater’s resource potential within a circular economy.
How does your Expert Group plan to achieve its goals, and how will it contribute to Water Europe’s Vision of a Water-Smart Society?
Our Expert Group supports Water Europe’s Vision by fostering a circular, water-smart economy through resource recovery. We focus on four key methods:
- Stakeholder collaboration: Engaging utilities, industry, researchers, and policymakers via expert meetings, workshops, and Horizon Europe partnerships to align needs and capabilities.
- Technology evaluation: Developing harmonised metrics to assess recovery technologies for efficiency, scalability, and sustainability.
- Knowledge dissemination: Publishing reports, sharing findings through open-access platforms, conferences, and policy dialogues to build awareness and uptake.
- Policy alignment: Identifying regulatory gaps and proposing targeted instruments to encourage innovation and accelerate market deployment.
We address core Water Europe objectives such as water-smart circularity, resource efficiency, and cross-sector integration. Demonstration projects and knowledge exchange help translate promising technologies into real-world applications. Measurable goals and clear indicators guide our impact assessment and support strategic progress toward resilient, low-carbon water systems.
