Blackburn home to UK first - making sugar from used toilet paper
The technology was developed in the Netherlands, and it's come to the UK for the first time at United Utilities' Blackburn site
A Blackburn sewage works is trialling a new technology to transform sewage into sugar - the first time it's ever been attempted in the UK.
The process, called Cellvation, was developed in the Netherlands. It involves recovering cellulose from used toilet paper in sewage, and then converting that cellulose into glucose.
United Utilities are reassuring the public that the sugar won't be used in food products.
Instead it'll be reserved for industrial uses, including biofuels, bioplastics and detergents.
United Utilities' Chief Engineer for innovation and carbon, Lisa Mansell, said this scheme is not only great for Lancashire's economy, but the environment too.
Mansell said: "It's just really exciting for Lancashire, for Blackburn to be really at the height of water treatment innovation."
This method is not just a novel way of creating sugar, but a way of freeing up capacity in the water treatment works.
Mansell said: "The cellulose that comes into the treatment works doesn't provide a lot of value to treatment.
"So taking it out means that we can treat more flow through an existing treatment works. And essentially we can deliver a better environmental outcome."
Mansell said that, though this trial is in the early stages, it could have real environmental benefits: "It can really help other sectors to reduce their carbon emissions, and really push forward that drive to Net Zero."