Liquid Gold:
The Wastewater Revolution

Each day, we flush valuable resources down our drains. Researchers are developing high-tech methods to recover what would otherwise be lost: energy, raw materials and information. The sewage treatment plant of the future is both a power plant and a biorefinery. Our wastewater is a complex mixture of substances that contains valuable resources – energy, nutrients and even information about our everyday lives. Researchers around the world are working on ways to extract them. In Hamburg, one of Europe’s biggest wastewater heat pumps is currently being built: it will supply up to 39,000 households with heat