Imagine your wastewater treatment plant not as a cost center, but as a factory that produces clean water, electricity, and raw materials. NextGen ran 10 large-scale demonstrations across Europe proving you can mine nutrients from sewage, turn sludge into activated carbon, and recover heat from water pipes for district heating. Think of it like recycling for water — except you're also pulling out energy and valuable chemicals along the way. The results come from real operational sites, not just lab benches.
Water and wastewater utilities spend enormous amounts on energy, discharge compliance, and raw material inputs — while the wastewater itself contains recoverable water, heat, nutrients, and carbon. Most treatment plants still operate as linear systems: water comes in dirty, gets cleaned, and the byproducts go to landfill or incineration. The circular economy opportunity — turning waste streams into revenue streams — remains largely untapped at scale.
The project delivered 33 outputs including documented performance data from 10 operational large-scale demonstration sites. Concrete deliverables cover new approaches for closing the water cycle (advanced reuse technologies), closing the energy cycle (treatment plants as energy producers, heat recovery), and closing the materials cycle (nutrient mining, activated carbon from sludge, membrane regeneration). Baseline and performance assessments provide before-and-after evidence for each demo case.
If you are a water utility struggling with rising energy costs and tightening discharge regulations — this project demonstrated technologies across 10 European sites that turn treatment plants into energy factories and recover reusable water. The 35-partner consortium tested advanced treatment, nature-based storage, and compact mobile systems at real operational scale.
If you are a district heating provider looking for low-cost heat sources — this project demonstrated water-enabled heat transfer, storage, and recovery systems for allied industries and commercial buildings. Energy recovery techniques were validated at large-scale demonstration cases with detailed performance data from 33 deliverables covering the full energy-water cycle.
If you are a materials company paying premium prices for phosphorus, nitrogen, or activated carbon — this project demonstrated nutrient mining from wastewater and production of activated carbon from sludge. These processes were tested at 10 demonstration sites across 13 countries, replacing conventional raw material sources with recovered alternatives.
The project data does not include specific implementation costs. However, the demonstrations focused explicitly on cost reduction — producing activated carbon from sludge to minimise micro-pollutant removal costs, and regenerating membranes to reduce water reuse costs. Contact the consortium for site-specific cost-benefit data from the 10 demo cases.
Yes. NextGen ran 10 large-scale demonstration cases across Europe, not lab pilots. Deliverables include documented evidence of operational demo cases with plans, performance data, and baseline-versus-results comparisons. The funding scheme was an Innovation Action, which targets near-market readiness.
With 35 partners including 13 industry players and 8 SMEs, IP arrangements would be governed by the consortium agreement. Based on available project data, specific licensing terms are not publicly listed. Interested companies should contact KWR Water BV as coordinator to discuss technology access.
The project directly addresses EU circular economy policy under the CIRC-02-2016-2017 topic. With 10 demonstration cases operating across 13 countries, the solutions were designed to work within existing European regulatory environments. Governance solutions were an explicit project deliverable alongside technical ones.
The project ran from 2018 to 2022 and produced operational demonstrations, meaning the core technologies have already been validated at scale. Deployment timelines would depend on your specific site conditions. The consortium developed transfer and upscaling approaches specifically to help new adopters.
The project explicitly developed compact, mobile, and scalable systems designed for integration into existing water infrastructure. One deliverable covers baseline assessment methodology for current facilities, suggesting the team designed solutions to retrofit into operational plants rather than requiring greenfield installations.
The 35-partner consortium includes 13 industry partners, 7 applied research institutes, and 8 specialised SMEs across 13 countries. KWR Water BV in the Netherlands coordinated the project. The consortium also connects to multiple European and global water technology networks.
The NextGen consortium is unusually large at 35 partners spanning 13 countries, which signals serious infrastructure-level ambition. With 13 industry partners (37% of the consortium) and 8 SMEs, this is not an academic exercise — real water companies, technology providers, and city authorities were at the table. The mix of 7 research institutes and 5 universities provided the science backbone, while 10 additional partners (likely municipalities and regional authorities) ensured the demonstrations happened at real operational sites. KWR Water BV, the Dutch water research institute, coordinated — they are one of Europe's most respected applied water research organisations. The geographic spread from the Netherlands to China and South Korea suggests global market relevance, not just European applicability.
KWR Water BV (Netherlands) — a leading European water research institute. Use their website to find the project lead or technology transfer office.
Want an introduction to the NextGen team or a tailored briefing on which demonstration results match your facility? SciTransfer can connect you directly with the right consortium partner for your use case.
