BioBoS

Forecasts show that the number of wastewater treatment plants and the amount of sludge to be treated will increase in the years to come, due to industrialization and growing urbanization. Sludge treatment and disposal will be formidable environmental challenges. An alternative to the disposal methods currently employed (incineration, landfill, agricultural spreading) is to use the lipids present in sludge as a raw material for biodiesel production. Converting sludge lipids into biodiesel requires a specific conversion process. This strategy offers a number of advantages: sludge volume reduction, waste recovery, cheap lipid sources and no competition with agriculture. In addition, the recovery of the residue after extraction is assessed via different routes in order to optimize the profitability of the process as much as possible. European Directive 2009/28/EC sets a target of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases and a 20% replacement of traditional fuels by renewable energy in the EU’s total energy consumption by 2020. As far as biofuels are concerned, the European Commission has set a 10% target for 2020. This project therefore fulfils a dual objective: sludge volume reduction with residue recovery and biodiesel production.