Delft biotech pioneer Mark van Loosdrecht receives Stockholm Water Prize
Professors Mark van Loosdrecht (Delft University of Technology) and Bruce Rittmann (Arizona State University) will both receive the 2018 Stockholm Water Prize today for revolutionizing water and wastewater treatment. By developing microbiological processes in wastewater treatment, they have demonstrated the possibilities to cut costs, reduce energy consumption and even recover chemicals and nutrients for recycling.
2018 Stockholm Water Prize announcement
Their pioneering research and innovations have led to a new generation of energy-efficient water treatment processes that can effectively extract nutrients and other chemicals – both valuable and harmful - from wastewater.
Stockholm Water Prize
The Stockholm Water Prize is a global award founded in 1991. It is appointed annually by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and awarded by SIWI, to an individual, organization or institution for outstanding water-related achievements. H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden is patron of the prize.
Mark van Loosdrecht
Professor van Loosdrecht’s research has led to the quite widely used Anammox and Nereda technologies for wastewater treatment. The Anammox process is a resource efficient way to remove nitrogen from wastewater. In industries it is used after anaerobic wastewater treatment while in municipal wastewater treatment it is used in combination with sludge digestion. In both cases this results in an energy producing treatment process.