As 2025 draws to a close, it’s clear that this has been a pivotal year for the anaerobic digestion (AD), biosolids and municipal wastewater industries. From the rapid rise of Anaerobic Digestion pretreatment, to the maturation of AI and data science, to the growth of high-quality piloting and modelling, the sector is evolving faster than ever. At ALPS Ecoscience, these shifts have shaped our work, strengthened our partnerships, and accelerated technology deployment at home and abroad.

Below, I reflect on the year — including our growing role in wastewater — and look ahead to what 2026 will bring, from containerised SMASH modules to nutrient recovery and new European collaborations.

Anaerobic Digestion Pretreatment Moves Centre Stage

If 2024 was the year AD pretreatment gained momentum, 2025 was the year it became unavoidable. Rising feedstock costs, tighter margins and increasing pressure to maximise kWh per tonne have made pretreatment one of the most commercially compelling investments in AD and biosolids management.

At ALPS, demand surged for our SMASH pretreatment platform as operators sought step-change improvements in biogas yield, VS destruction and plant stability. Across food waste, agricultural slurries and — increasingly — biosolids, pretreatment delivered efficiency improvements that simple operational tuning can no longer unlock.

This year reaffirmed something we’ve said many times: the cheapest kilowatt is the one extracted from the feedstock you already have.

Expansion Into the Municipal Wastewater Sector

A major milestone in 2025 was ALPS’ growing engagement with the UK municipal wastewater industry, where interest in pretreatment is rising rapidly. Faced with higher biosolids disposal costs and a regulatory push toward energy-positive treatment works, utilities are turning to technologies that fundamentally change digestion performance.

Our work with Jack Dyer-Jones — whose experience in large sludge-centre optimisation has been invaluable — has delivered some of the most exciting results to date. Jack will present early findings at a Lisbon conference this December, but it is already clear that: pretreatment is proving highly effective in biosolids management, with strong gains in gas yield and volatile solids reduction.

We expect wastewater to be one of the largest growth areas for pretreatment in 2026 and beyond.

Advancing Nutrient Recovery: Ammonia Stripping and Sustainable Ammonium Sulphate

Another standout achievement in 2025 was the successful deployment of an ammonia stripper for a client aiming to increase the proportion of chicken litter in their AD recipe. High-nitrogen feedstocks like poultry manure offer excellent biogas potential but often cause ammonia inhibition. The installation allowed the operator to safely incorporate significantly more chicken litter while maintaining stable operation.

The recovered ammonium sulphate has since been certified as a sustainable product and is now supplied into manufacturing as part of a corporate carbon-reduction programme — a powerful demonstration of how AD can deliver decarbonised, circular-economy chemical inputs.

Why nutrient recovery will keep growing

We expect nutrient recovery to become a major commercial and environmental priority for AD operators in 2026 and beyond due to:

• Tighter nutrient-spreading regulation
• Rising industrial demand for low-carbon chemicals
• Additional revenue streams that strengthen AD business resilience
• The shift toward circular resource recovery models

In short, green chemical recovery from digestate will be a fundamental part of the future AD value chain, and ALPS is investing in this opportunity.

AI and Data Science Become Practical Tools

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominated industry headlines, 2025 proved that the real impact comes from combining AI with strong data science.

Through our collaboration with the University of Surrey, ALPS advanced the integration of machine learning, data engineering and kinetic modelling into everyday operational decision-making. These tools helped operators to:

• forecast biogas production more accurately
• detect early-stage process deviations
• optimise feed blends using data-driven recommendations
• test plant changes virtually before implementing them

This is not about replacing operator knowledge; it is about enhancing it with deeper, faster insight.

Looking ahead to 2026, we expect to see:

• AI embedded in standard plant reporting
• automated model retraining via live datasets
• integrated AI + pilot data accelerating validation cycles

The industry has moved from hype to practical, evidence-based optimisation.

Piloting and Modelling Go Mainstream

2025 marked a major step forward in the scale and rigour of AD pilot testing. Operators now expect clear evidence before committing to upgrades, and the combination of piloting, data science and modelling has become the sector’s gold standard.

ALPS delivered more pilots in 2025 than any previous year, with sites across the UK, Ireland and Europe feeding into our modelling and optimisation work. These pilots produce the high-resolution datasets required for truly predictive AI and kinetic models.

This creates a powerful feedback loop:

• pilots generate clean, structured data
• data science extracts deep process insight
• AI delivers robust predictive modelling
• modelling guides smarter, more targeted pilots

The outcome: lower risk, clearer decisions, and faster optimisation.

Containerised, Modular SMASH: Global, Drop-In Deployment

A major engineering milestone this year was the launch of ALPS’ fully containerised, modular SMASH system — a drop-in AD pretreatment and pre-digestion technology designed for rapid global deployment.

Manufactured in Wales, these modules can be:

• shipped anywhere worldwide
• craned directly into position
• connected to existing plant infrastructure
• delivering measurable performance improvements within days

Each module is designed around 1 MW (electrical) equivalent capacity, enabling operators to scale anaerobic digestion pretreatment in predictable, manageable blocks. The modular format also opens the door to new commercial models, including rental, leasing and phased investment.

In 2026, containerised SMASH will be one of our most transformative offerings.

A New European Partnership

2025 also saw the start of a new strategic partnership in Europe, focused on deploying SMASH into food-waste and agro-industrial digestion facilities. Several pilot deployments are scheduled for early 2026, accelerating validation and adoption across the continent.

Europe is moving quickly — and ALPS intends to move with it.

Looking Ahead to 2026

If 2025 was a year of momentum, 2026 will be a year of deployment and scale. We anticipate three defining trends:

• Anaerobic Digestion Pretreatment becomes the default for plants seeking resilience and higher throughput.
• AI and data science become embedded into daily plant operation and decision-making.
• Modular, containerised SMASH systems and nutrient-recovery technologies roll out across the UK, Europe and beyond.

For ALPS Ecoscience, it’s an exciting time. The industry is evolving — and we are ready to help support that evolution.