Sustainable Decentralized Energy Generation & Sanitation: Case EVA Lanxmeer, Culemborg, the Netherlands

Urban Farm DB summary

This paper is a case study of the integration of a combined wastewater/energy system into a semi-public building, the EVA Centre, within EVA Lanxmeer, a "deep green" district in Culemborg, the Netherlands, consisting of 250 houses, offices, and a City farm. The district lies in an ecologically sensitive drinking-water extraction and retention area, and the approach centres on closing nutrient, water, and carbon cycles and integrating energy generation with waste management using the concept of exergy. The core system is based on anaerobic digestion (treating black wastewater and garden/park waste) combined with Combined Heat and Power generation, alongside a four-storey double-skin-façade closed greenhouse with vertical "hanging gardens" that incorporates wastewater treatment based on the Living Machine concept for educational purposes, recovering surplus CO2 from the biogas plant and storing heat/cold in an underlying aquifer. This "Sustainable Implant" concept is described as connecting the residential district and the EVA Centre, and its inhabitants and visitors.