SOLUTION / PUBLIC SOURCE RECORD
NORSEP enables circular economy in landfills
- Published 19 December 2022; updated 21 September 2026; estimated reading time 2 minutes. Availability label says “Soon available” and explains there are concrete plans to make the solution commercially available in the near future; category Circular economy.
- NORSEP describes a process for treating fly ash from waste-to-energy (WtE) incinerators, turning hazardous waste into non-toxic residue and marketable products/raw materials. The page says WtE can reduce waste by up to 90% and recover heat, but fly ash can contain up to 20% toxic heavy metals.
- Process outline: dissolve fly ash in hydrochloric acid, filter undissolved ash, and use heat treatment to destroy organic toxins. A patented NORSEP processing algorithm controls the process. Output materials can be used by other industries, including concrete manufacture and zinc production.
- The stated environmental and operational benefits are reduced fly-ash impacts, less demand for landfills and hazardous-waste transport, and reuse of one industry’s by-product as another’s raw material.
- Market figures on the page: Europe has over 500 WtE plants generating more than 2 million metric tonnes of fly ash per year; worldwide there are over 2,000 WtE plants.
- The page says Norwegian WtE plants showed demand and states that the first full-scale NORSEP facility was to be installed at a WtE plant in Oslo, with production starting July 2021. This historical schedule is retained as stated alongside the page’s current “Soon available” label; the page does not clarify the apparent mismatch.
- Linked to SDG 6, Clean water and sanitation, through reducing potential heavy-metal leaching into groundwater; SDG 9, Industry, innovation and infrastructure, through cleaner waste-disposal technology; SDG 11, Sustainable cities and communities, through local pollution management; and SDG 12, Responsible consumption and production, through reducing industrial waste impacts.
- Contact: Per Bakke, R&D Manager, per.bakke@norsep.no. Phone number is behind a collapsed reveal control. Company: NORSEP AS, Hydrovegen 67, 3936 Porsgrunn, Norway; norsep.no.