Developing innovative, circular solutions for wastewater treatment sludge

INCLUE Project Objectives

INCLUE will set up the first European doctoral training network on developing innovative, circular solutions for the treatment of sludge containing pollutants.

INCLUE will train 11 creative and entrepreneurially-minded DCs via an international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research training program in the field of sludge pre-treatment combined with state-of-the-art bioconversion techniques and multi-level toxicity assessment, for the effective removal and/or recovery of both hazardous and valuable compounds from municipal and industrial sludges.

The success of the program is guaranteed via a unique combination of state-of-the-art PhD research, intersectoral secondments, international mobility and interdisciplinary platform-wide courses.

Research Objectives

Develop and optimise sustainable techniques to enhance the properties and composition of sludge through removal of (in)organic pollutants to eliminate any adverse effects for sludge application (i) in a subsequent bioconversion process or (ii) directly as a fertiliser on land.

Develop augmented fermentative bioconversion processes to produce renewable chemicals and fuels, and to recover nutrients from municipal and industrial sludges, potentially combined with pre-treatment technologies.

Create tools to assess the overall environmental performance of treated sludges towards toxicity, pollutant soil dynamics and agricultural
fertilising value in a combined decision support tool (WP3) for 5 different types of pollutants: pesticides, endocrine disrupting compounds, heavy metals, PFAS and antibiotics. Develop a socio-economic evaluation tool, to support decision-making and societal acceptance.

INCLUE: an interdisciplinary project and a truly intersectoral and international consortium

INCLUE RESEARCH FOCUS

WP1

Upgrading sludge properties via innovative treatment processes

WP2

Renewable chemicals and fuels production via augmented sludge bioconversion

WP3

Eco-Impact Assessment

News & Blog

Finding Perspective in Patterns: Reflections from the Scottish Environmental & Analytical Chemistry Symposium

December 17, 2025

Conferences have a way of pulling you out of your own data and reminding you where your work fits in the bigger picture. I recently attended the 14th Scottish Environmental and Analytical Chemistry Symposium, hosted at the University of Aberdeen, where I presented a poster on my PhD research and spent a day immersed in discussions spanning environmental monitoring, analytical innovation, and applied chemistry. My poster focused on the development of array-based fluorescent sensing strategies for detecting micropollutants and assessing potential ecotoxicity in treated sewage sludge. Sludge is increasingly viewed

Encouraging Young Minds: Nitin Kumar Engages Pupils in Chemistry at Paracetamol Workshops

December 12, 2025

On 2 December 2025, University of Glasgow doctoral researcher Nitin Kumar (DC11) participated in a series of Paracetamol-themed laboratory workshops for a group of pupils who travelled from Dumfries. Aimed at providing hands-on experience in chemistry, the sessions introduced students to practical aspects of pharmaceutical science while offering a glimpse into life as a researcher. The workshops were divided into two parts. In the first half, Kumar and a couple of colleagues delivered a short talk about their academic journeys and research projects, sharing insights into the day-to-day work of

From Signals to Insights: Advancing My PhD Work on Sludge Sensing

December 5, 2025

Turning Sludge into a Story Sewage sludge might not sound glamorous, but it tells a fascinating chemical story.Rich in nutrients yet carrying micropollutants, from pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting compounds to PFASs and industrial chemicals,it presents a unique challenge: how can we safely reuse it while monitoring contaminants effectively? A Cross-Reactive Sensor Array Our solution is a cross-reactive sensor array made of structurally diverse hosts: cucurbit[8]uril, cucurbit[7]uril, γ-cyclodextrin, hydroxypropyl β-cyclodextrin, sulfocalix[4]arene, and human serum albumin. Paired with fluorescent dyes, this system responds to host-guest interactions. Using fluorescence indicator displacement assays (FIDAs), we’ve

My secondment at TU Delft

December 4, 2025

This is my first day back at my lab. It feels as if I lived a whole, and fully different, life in the last two months. Being home means that I now have to look back at everything and try to summarize it. I have spent two months at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands (the country fighting the seas to stay afloat), completing my secondment. My INCLUE colleague Andrea, welcomed me in an amazing manner, as did the entire university. I learned, I discussed, I

My secondment at the University of Oxford

December 2, 2025

It’s been just shy of a month since I came back from my secondment in Oxford, and I am still processing this amazing experience. I had the pleasure and utter honour of working in James Kwan’s lab, one of the most advanced and renowned groups in sonochemistry. There, I had the chance to work with their custom SonoCyl ultrasound reactors, optimized for pollutant degradation as well as for H₂ production, among other goals. With these reactors, I achieved very promising degradation levels for PFAS, the focus of my project. I

INCLUE Project Presented at STOWA Slib Symposium 2025

October 3, 2025

On the 2nd of October, the INCLUE project was featured at the STOWA Slib Symposium 2025, where researchers and industry experts gathered to discuss the future of sludge (“slib” in Dutch) management in the Netherlands under the theme “Zijn we klaar voor 2050?” (“Are we ready for 2050?”). Andrea Deiana (DC4) presented a pitch on his research, ensuring that the fate of emerging contaminants would not slib out of the talks. Covering topics from sludge incineration capacity to the presence of contaminants of emerging concern, from dewatering to alternative uses