Victorian Regenerative Circular Resource Initiative

From residuals to verified regeneration.

A systems-intelligence approach to wastewater, biosolids, biochar, nutrients, energy, soil and the fate of every material stream.

Explore the system Examine the evidence

Hover or focus a stage to see what it connects to. Dashed lines show verification touching several stages.

01
Catchments
Where material enters the system: households, industry and stormwater, each with its own contaminant profile.
02
Treatment
Wastewater treatment separates water from solids. Decisions here shape what the solids can later become.
03
Solids
Sludge, biosolids and digestate are different materials. Their identity and history matter.
04
Recovery
Energy, nutrients and thermal routes. Each creates new products and new residuals to account for.
05
Products
A recovered material becomes a product only after qualification, not because it has left the plant.
06
Receiving land
Soil, water and crop conditions determine whether a product is useful and acceptable at its destination.
07
Outcomes
Multi-year results beyond the facility boundary, including corrective action when results disappoint.
08
Verification
Measurement, records and independent review. It touches every stage rather than sitting at the end.

What changes when we follow the material all the way to its destination?

Wastewater resource recovery is not a single process. Decisions about incoming contaminants can determine product eligibility years later. Energy requirements can alter technology choice. Agricultural conditions can reshape processing specifications. We make those dependencies explicit.

Trace a pathway

Follow a material from origin to destination and see where gates are missing.

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Test an assumption

Change the inputs of a transparent calculation and watch the result move.

Open 03

Review the evidence

Browse public sources alongside what each one does and does not establish.

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Atlas preview

Eighteen domains, connected rather than ranked.

Choose a domain to see what it touches. Try Contaminant fate.

Domain H

Contaminant fate

Connected in this preview to:

A Source control
G Pyrolysis and thermal processing
J Product formulation and quality assurance
L Other land uses
R Governance and evidence

Preview of editorial connections. Each connection will carry its own rationale and source in the full Atlas.

Open the full Atlas

Research principles

Capture is not destruction

Follow contaminants through every process output, not only the main product.

Nutrient presence is not agronomic performance

Compare available nutrients, controls and outcomes, not totals on a certificate.

Recovery is not regeneration

Verify effects beyond the facility boundary, over years, at the receiving site.

Illustration

How much water does drying remove?

Wet mass (t)

Starting dry solids (%)

Target dry solids (%)

D = M0 x DS0 / 100
M1 = D / (DS1 / 100)
Water removed = M0 - M1

Dry solids: 20 dry t
Wet mass after drying: 25 wet t
Water removed: 75 t
Mass reduction: 75 %

Illustration only, using hypothetical values. Dry solids are assumed constant; real operations may lose dry matter or add chemicals, and energy, cost and suitability are not calculated here.

More methods and tools

Selected evidence

Guideline / EPA Victoria

Guidelines for environmental management: Biosolids land application (Publication 943)

Discusses risk-managed beneficial biosolids land application.

2004; page updated 2025. Verify continuing status and current obligations for a specific project.

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National guidance / DCCEEW / Heads of EPAs

PFAS National Environmental Management Plan 3.1

National PFAS investigation, management and reuse guidance.

2026. Guidance is not proof of treatment performance or a project permission.

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IP guidance / IP Australia

What to consider before applying for a patent

Keep a potential invention confidential before appropriate filing or strategy.

General guidance, not an ownership or patentability opinion.

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Research agenda

RQ-01 / Research questionWhat constitutes valid process-wide contaminant fate evidence?
RQ-02 / Research questionUnder which conditions can char, digestate and humic components yield safe and useful agricultural products?
RQ-03 / Research questionHow do energy, transport, water, nutrient and end-use requirements reshape optimal infrastructure?

See the research agenda

Convenor

Gerard Joseph Donohue

Initiator and research convenor of VRCRI, based in Korumburra, Victoria. Interests include biochar, biosolids, resource recovery and regenerative land use.

Systems architecture

Rohan Michael Brown

Systems architecture and technical development, through Awonow. Awonow is a separate identity from VRCRI.

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Bring a difficult question.

We welcome discussions grounded in real material streams, published research, measurement questions, operating constraints and useful outcomes.

Discuss a research question

Follow the material. Reconcile the evidence. Verify the outcome.