The Project Run4Life supports the principles of the Circular Economy by developing a sustainable strategy for nutrient recovery and water reuse, while ensuring successful market uptake. The project brings together all key actors along the value chain—including end-users—to foster holistic and integrated solutions.
The main objective of Run4Life is to demonstrate decentralized recovery of up to 100% of NPK nutrients and over 90% of water from source-separated black water (BW), kitchen waste (KW), and greywater (GW).
Run4Life goes beyond technical implementation by actively promoting market adoption through: Proactive risk mitigation;Implementation of new business models; Promotion of social and organizational innovation; and Inclusion of the end-user perspective.
Key project activities:
• Engagement with Fertilizer Companies and Farmers to ensure real-world application and acceptance of recovered products.
• Development of three innovative technologies, brought to a level of readiness suitable for integration into demonstration sites:Ultra-low flush toilets (JETS), the assessment of HTAD technology for one step fertilizer production with pathogens inactivation (WU) and the demonstration of the configuration of BES for NH4 recovery from BW (Aqua).
• Large Scale Demo: Optimization and validation at demo sites
• End-users perspective: Addressing quality and safety requirements to build trust and acceptance.
• Risk and Life Cycle Assessments: Ensuring environmental and operational safety across the system.
• Strategic Organisational and Social innovation: Supporting systemic change for circular sanitation solutions.
• Exploitation and Market uptake: Focused on bringing the technologies and products to market through business planning and stakeholder engagement.
Under the Project, WE&B succesfully developed/ delivered the following services:
• WE&B’s main objective in the Run4Life project was to identify key stakeholder expectations at all levels, supporting the long-term feasibility and social acceptance of the technology. Our work focused on understanding and aligning stakeholder needs across the entire nutrient value chain for which we conducted the following activities:
i) Stakeholder Assessments to evaluated the interests, perceptions, capacities, and institutional relationships of stakeholders involved in the nutrient recovery and reuse chain.
ii) Governance and Social Analysis to examine governance structures and social dimensions relevant to technology development, with the aim of reducing and mitigating risks associated with the implementation of Run4Life systems across various production sectors.
iii) Social Network Analysis (SNA) to map and understand the power dynamics, influence, and networking capabilities of stakeholders within the EU nutrient value chain.
iv) Publications on Stakeholder Perceptions (addressing concerns and perceptions around water reuse at multiple scales and among diverse stakeholder groups.)
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