Following three successful editions in Spain (2012), Italy (2014) and the United Kingdom (2016), the International Water Association (IWA) now organized the 4th edition of the ecoSTP conference (IWA ecoSTP18) to be held in London, Ontario, Canada.
The goal of this conference is to facilitate the efficient transfer of knowledge into practice – removing roadblocks between scientific discoveries and commercial implementation, essentially bridging the "valley-of-death" in the innovation cycle.
In cooperation with Western University and Water Environment Federation (WEF), the IWA ecoSTP18 Conference aims to attract a global audience with representation by technology providers, consulting engineering firms, academia, and utilities.
IWA ecoSTP18 will promote discussion and exchange of ideas through a combination of pre-conference workshops and network-centered conference sessions. A number of panels coordinated by visionary leaders will discuss the role of transformative technologies for wastewater treatment.
Topics
This conference will focus on innovative wastewater treatment technologies that ultimately enable the emerging paradigm shift from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) to water resource recovery facilities (WRRF) and alignment with the "the three factories" vision. Accordingly, the conference will be structured to accentuate the following three major themes:
- The Water Factory, with emphasis on water treatment, reclamation and reuse;
- The Energy Factory, with emphasis on energy recovery and the net-zero energy goal;
- The Value Products Factory, with emphasis on resource recovery and value product creation.
Focus will be placed on scientific contributions where good modeling practices and robust experimentation are presented, with the goal of overcoming barriers for technology adoption at full scale. Case studies of successful commercialization will be shared together with best practices and lessons learned. Limitations and new development needs associated with these technologies will also be discussed. Examples of topics discussed in the conference include:
- Emerging technologies for wastewater treatment and reuse (e.g., microsieving, granular sludge and short-cut nutrient removal;
- Emerging opportunities for resource recovery (e.g., nutrients, valuable organic compounds such as proteins, cellulose and bioplastics, and metals and other value products);
- Strategies for energy optimization, carbon diversion and biogas production;
- Integrated plant-wide assessment, including advanced modeling, optimization and control;
- Microbial ecology and ecotoxicology; GHG quantification and management; Economic impacts (capital costs, operational costs and economic efficiency).
For more information, please visit http://conference.uwo.ca/ecoSTP2018/index.cfm
