20x20 | Transforming wastewater into resources

The Codiga Resource Recovery Center (CR2C) is revolutionizing wastewater treatment and resource recovery. This innovative center is developing clean technologies for energy and water recovery, addressing critical environmental challenges. By reimagining wastewater as a valuable resource, the team is creating sustainable solutions that can be applied globally.

As global water scarcity intensifies and energy demands grow, traditional wastewater treatment methods are becoming increasingly unsustainable. There is an urgent need for innovative approaches that can transform waste into valuable resources while minimizing environmental impact. The interdisciplinary team at CR2C is addressing this challenge by developing cutting-edge technologies for wastewater treatment and resource recovery. Their work focuses on extracting clean water, nutrients, energy, and renewable materials, and public health information from wastewater, turning treatment facilities into resource recovery hubs.

The center has deep roots in the Woods Institute, going back to multiple Environmental Venture Project (EVP) seed grants and Uncommon Dialogue convenings of academic and industry experts. A 2004 EVP grant led to DNA-based methods for diagnosing wastewater treatment plant issues. A 2009 EVP grant helped develop a groundbreaking method to extract nitrogen from wastewater for reuse in treatment plants. Uncommon Dialogues held between 2008 and 2010 brought together Stanford faculty, regional water officials, and industry leaders to stimulate thinking about a test bed for energy-efficient water reclamation as part of a larger focus on catalyzing collaborative water reclamation and management efforts.

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Craig Criddle, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and Dick Luthy, the Silas H. Palmer Professor of Civil Engineering contributed technical expertise to the development of CR2C, while Tom Zigterman, associate director of Water Services and Civil Infrastructure at Stanford, was instrumental in winning university approval for the project and guiding it through the planning process.

Since then, CR2C has evolved into a fully operational "living laboratory" on Stanford's campus. This unique facility allows researchers to conduct experiments with different grades of wastewater, accelerating the development of new technologies. Field trials at CR2C have demonstrated the potential of these innovative approaches to transform wastewater treatment. The center has catalyzed over $5 million of funding to scale up water resource recovery technologies from federal, state, international, and corporate sponsors. It was instrumental in facilitating a project to provide sewer tracking of the virus causing COVID-19 and other common infections like the flu.

CR2C represents the transformation of treatment facilities into resource recovery hubs and new economic opportunities. Cities can implement CR2C technologies in municipal wastewater treatment to recover resources and reduce costs; businesses can adopt these innovations for industrial water management, minimizing water use and recovering valuable materials from their wastewater; and farmers can benefit from agricultural water reuse, utilizing recovered water and nutrients for irrigation and fertilization.

Read about other projects that have received support from Woods Institute's funded research programs.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Sebastien Tilmans/CR2C