Resource Recovery Roadmaps

The goal of the Resource Recovery Roadmaps is to develop a high-level approach to help guide utilities and industry decision-makers in issues to consider when considering the NEW paradigm (Nutrients, Energy, and Water). The Roadmaps are brief and high-level to be accessible to all types of stakeholders, including public officials, utility managers, operators, engineers, and regulators. They do not "reinvent the wheel," with all of the great technical resources available. Rather, the focus is to help decision-makers quickly understand the strategic issues inherent in a water reuse effort.

• The Energy Roadmap: A Water and Wastewater Utility Guide to More Sustainable Energy Management (2013)

• The Nutrient Roadmap (2015)

• The Water Reuse Roadmap (2018)

Resource Recovery Baseline Data Report

This is a special Technical Report produced in 2018 to establish the current amount of resource recovery from WRRFs: Baseline Data to Establish the Current Amount of Resource Recovery at WRRFs.

Official Position Statement Approved by WEF
Date of Approval: October 6, 2022
Expiration Date: October 5, 2027

Natural resources are limited, and their recovery is essential to healthy, sustainable communities. Water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) provide the key to sustainable resource management for resources such as energy, carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen. The following are resource recovery options available to WRRF:

• Nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, are abundant in wastewater while in limited supply. Their recovery offers an opportunity to generate such valuable products as struvite, ammonia, and other fertilizers.
• WRRFs can recover renewable natural gas as well as more energy from biosolids than they can do today through drying, gasification, and incineration. Diversifying markets make available new end uses for biosolids in agriculture, horticulture, soil reclamation, and carbon sequestration.
• Wastewater contains chemical, thermal, and hydraulic energy and with today’s technology, a portion of these energy forms can be recovered at WWRFs and should be considered and evaluated for alternative end uses.
• Wastewater can be treated for indirect and direct potable use, as well as irrigation, groundwater recharge, and industrial uses.

READ WEF'S official POSITION STATEMENT ON RESOURCE RECOVERY