KA11000 REMAC - Renewing Sludge Management Concepts

The Project REMAC aims to develop ecologically and economically sound sludge management concepts in smaller regional towns.

The project REMAC responds to the specific element for improving the people’s physical living environment by providing new methods for ecologically and economically sustainable concepts for wastewater utility sludge treatments for regional towns in relatively dispersed settlements. In many cases, current sludge treatment practices are not carried out on ecologically or economically solid basis.

In Finland, open-pit composting of the sludges is about to end due to existing environmental permit practices. Finland is nationally supporting biogas production, which is implemented nationally as big-volume anaerobic digestion units. Whilst the increase in biogas production supports environmental sustainability, the dependency on centralized high-volume units forms problems in areas with dispersed population. The amount of fossil fuel needed in transportation of the sludge is high due to transportation of even hundreds of kilometers for both the sludge and the digestate from the biogas production process. Wet digestion is also very water-intensive process increasing the need to transport digestate with high water content after digestion process. 

Prior to March 2022, Russian Karelia was also a part of the project area, but due to Russia's invasion and war in Ukraine, all the organizational cooperation with Russia has been halted. Originally, REMAC sought solutions for the problems that landfilling or open-pit composting of sludge causes, leading to uncontrolled methane leakage and leeching of nutrients and possible harmful compounds into soil and nearby waterbodies. To date sludge is placed to open-pit composting instead of incineration. One problem is also that options for renewing the sludge management without massive investments are not always recognized, nor implemented.

 

Project news

The Project Group consists of following organisations: 

KAMK University of Applied Sciences
Kajaani University of Applied Sciences offers higher education for experts, supports professional growth and carries out research & development activities. KAMK is one of Finland's best and most successful universities of applied sciences in terms of its results, according to the Ministry of Education and Culture. KAMK uses internationalization as a regional development tool. The activities of KAMK R&D are founded in robust specialist expertise, well-functioning partnerships and highly skilled expertise in project work.

Kajaani University of applied sciences coordinates the project ReMaC, and as a lead partner is responsible for the overall project implementation and financial management. It is on KAMK’s responsibility to prepare concept plans for smaller scale shared sludge managing. KAMK has the important duty to report and disseminate project results actively between partners and to the stakeholders but throughout the programme area.

More information: https://www.kamk.fi/en

Puolanka municipality
Municipality provides the residents with public services. The municipality of Puolanka and its subsidiary “Honkainfra” will invest on a pilot sewage sludge treatment plant.

More information: www.puolanka.fi

Mikko Ahokas Consulting Oy
Macon Oy is a consultancy company specialising in bioeconomies and cleantech. Macon is one leading expert company in Finland in relation to bioeconomy and circular economy activities. The company is especially advanced in the development, design and commercialization of innovative technologies related to organic and inorganic side streams.

Macon’s role in the project relates to the planning of the wastewater sludge treatment facility. Specifically, Macon will consult the preparation of detailed concept plans (WP1), the investment and implementation of the anaerobic digestion unit (WP2), and the investment and implementation of the sludge drying unit (WP3).

More information: https://www.macon.fi/en/

 

Until March 2022 also Kondopoga Town Administration, Regional Company Water and Ecology LLC, Gorvodokanal Kostomuksha and Kostomuksha Town Administration were a part of the project group.

 

Outi Laatikainen
project leader, Senior R&D Expert
firstname.lastname@kamk.fi
Tel. +358 44 710 1662

KAMK Kajaani University of Applied Sciences
P.O.Box 52 Ketunpolku 1, TIETO 1

FI-87101 Kajaani, Finland