Dutch technology reclaims humic acid at drinking water plants
Circular Economy innovation by Dutch water supply company Vitens helps Royal HaskoningDHV obtain value from water globally
International engineering and project management consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV has joined forces with Dutch water supply company Vitens to help other drinking water companies around the world recover humic acid, an organic fertiliser.
Humic acid is often discharged currently as a waste product during the drinking water blanching process. Thanks to this innovation from Vitens it can now be reclaimed sustainably in its pure form, providing an organic soil improver.
Royal HaskoningDHV will be marketing this unique Dutch technology, which won the international Aquatech Innovation Award 2013, on a global scale. Ms Lieve Declercq, chair of the Vitens Executive Board and Ms Esther Bosman, Royal HaskoningDHV’s Director Water Technology in the Netherlands, signed a partnership agreement to this effect on 8 January 2015.
Humic acid occurs in coal and lignite as well peat, and Europe currently usually uses a chemical process on lignite imported from the US and Australia to extract the acid. This process has an adverse effect on the environment, and is also expensive because of transport costs. The new technology will help drinking water companies recover humic acid from their own water, while also reclaiming a sustainable and local product - easily and without any chemical effect on the environment.
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