Nutrient Recovery: Creating Value from Waste at Metro Vancouver

From waste to growing crops

In February 2009, members of the Reference Panel spent a day at the Lulu Island and Iona Island plants in Richmond. “The familiarization tour provided Reference Panel members with an opportunity to see how the plants are operated,” reports Robert Hicks, Senior Engineer with Metro Vancouver and a key member of the team that is writing the Liquid Waste Management Plan.

The focus of the Lulu plant tour was on the pilot nutrient recovery technology developed by Dr. Don Mavinic of the University of British Columbia (UBC), and a member of the Reference Panel. “To demonstrate the potential for sustainable wastewater treatment solutions, we at UBC have developed the technology to capture phosphorus and ammonia from high concentration streams and recycle them into environmentally safe fertilizer,” explained Dr. Mavinic.

To Learn More:

To read the complete article, click on Nutrient Recovery: Creating Value from Waste at Metro Vancouver’s Lulu Island Sewage Treatment Plant.

Originally posted on the Water-Centric Planning community-of-interest in February 2009