Ecoval Sudoe project successfully achieves the production of volatile fatty acids from sludge and urban biowaste

The capacity of organic waste of urban origin to increase microbiological diversity in agricultural and forestry soils has also been demonstrated.

The Ecoval Sudoe project, co-financed by the Interreg Sudoe Programme through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), has successfully come to an end. This project, which started in November 2020, has successfully scaled up the technology to produce high-purity volatile fatty acids from sewage sludge and municipal biowaste. The initiative has demonstrated that both organic wastes have enormous potential for biofactory development and can be used as renewable and sustainable feedstock in the chemical industry.

Thanks to European funding of around 1.5 million euros and the work of the consortium, not only the technology was improved but the project also achieved the development of business models and the identification of legal barriers to its implementation. In addition, it has been demonstrated that the model can be replicated in industrial environments, which opens the door to its implementation in different sectors such as canning or dairy. 

The results of the Ecoval project (Coordination strategies for the management and valorisation of sludge and organic waste in the SUDOE region) have also highlighted the capacity to use organic waste of urban origin (biostabilised waste and sewage sludge) to increase microbiological diversity in agricultural and forestry soils. 

Thanks to this initiative, led by Cetaqua and with the participation of a consortium formed by the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León, the Galician Business-University Foundation, INSA Toulouse, Nereus, Porto Ambiente and Aguas do Tejo Atlántico, great progress has been made in the sustainable production of materials and chemical products from organic waste, thus contributing to the circular economy and the protection of the environment.

Resources and environmental awareness 

Beyond the results at a technical level, the consortium has placed great emphasis on environmental education and awareness since the correct separation of waste is extremely important for projects such as Ecoval Sudoe. 

Around 1,500 pupils of different ages participated in activities set up by the consortium with the aim of raising awareness of the correct separation of waste at source, with a special focus on the fifth container for the separation of the organic fraction and on waste that should not be flushed down the toilet. One of the communication campaigns carried out by the project was awarded the European Waste Reduction Week Special European Award in recognition of its impact, creativity, and participatory nature. 

The project’s website also contains other materials such as videos and posters or a good practice guide, which allow visitors to solve their doubts about correct waste separation, as well as interactive games to test the knowledge acquired. All these tools are essential for scaling up business models such as the one proposed by Ecoval, since without correct waste separation, no innovative process for waste recovery can be carried out.

Ecoval Sudoe Final Conference: Towards a circular management of urban biowaste and sewage sludge

The final conference of the Ecoval Sudoe project (Coordination strategies for sludge and organic waste management and valorization in the SUDOE region) will take place in Ourense on March 9th, where the main results of the project, active since November 2020, will be presented.

Here you can consult the full agenda of the event, “Ecoval Sudoe: Towards a circular management of urban biowaste and sewage sludge”.

Those interested in attending can do so in person or online. The event will be held in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English for those who need it. Both in-person and online seating is limited, and registration will close when the maximum number of participants is reached. Don’t miss it, register here!

The expository part of the day will start at 10.00 am and will last until 2.00 pm, with the following blocks.

Institutional welcome and presentation of the Ecoval Sudoe project.
Talk Past and present of the management of urban biowaste and sewage sludge. Cases of Galicia and Porto region.
Proposals of the Ecoval project: biorefineries as a circular economy proposal for the management of urban organic waste.
Round table. Future perspectives for the valorization of urban biowaste and sewage sludge.
After the break for lunch and networking, those attending in person will be able to visit, from 15.30 to 17.00 hours, the Ourense biofactory, which houses the pilot plant of the project. Visitors will be able to learn first-hand about the different steps and processes used to obtain volatile acids from urban biowaste and sewage sludge. Virtual attendees will also be able to visit it through the project’s YouTube channel.

We look forward to seeing you in Ourense and also online!

 

The Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León presents its contribution to the Ecoval Sudoe project

The Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León (FPNCyL) presented the results of its contribution to the European project Ecoval Sudoe, which is focused on the recovery of sludge and biostabilised organic waste.

See the full programme here.

 

This event, which took place in an on-line format, started at 12:00 with a short general presentation of the Ecoval Sudoe project, which you can consult here. Subsequently, the results obtained from the research study on the valorisation of sewage sludge by-products and biostabilised sludge were presented in two phases.

 

Firstly, the results derived from the study of the effect on soil microbiology after the use of three types of amendments obtained from organic waste were shown, you can read the presentation here. Then, the affection to the physico-chemical conditions of the soil after the application of these three types of amendments was shown, click here to read it. Finally, the event concluded with an open question and answer session to discuss the results of the research.

 

The FPNCyL organised this event as part of the final campaign to disseminate the results of the Ecoval Sudoe project, which will end in 2023. In addition, this same organisation is currently carrying out the third and last awareness-raising workshop in schools in Palencia with the aim of raising awareness among the new generations about the importance of the correct separation of organic waste in order to create a more sustainable and circular future.

The Ecoval Sudoe project raises awareness of new generations in Palencia

 

Eight schools in Palencia have been the honoured hosts of a new activity organised jointly by Aquona and the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León, a partner of the Ecoval Sudoe project, with the aim of raising awareness among new generations about the importance of the correct separation and recovery of organic waste. The awareness campaign was spread over a total of four days between 23 and 29 November and, thanks to eight environmental education workshops, 184 children learned in a playful and participatory way about the importance of the brown bin and which waste should go in it.

 

This is the second time that the ECOVAL project has carried out environmental education actions in Palencia. Last school year, 6 schools and 248 students participated in 11 workshops. Last year’s campaign was held on the occasion of the European Week for Waste Reduction, the biggest awareness-raising event on waste prevention in Europe, which this year took place from the 19th to the 27th of the same month.

 

Last year, the Ecoval Sudoe project participated in this event with the campaign “Another bin, what a brown bin!”, focused on disseminating and familiarising the general public with the new brown bin in order to emphasise the importance of correct waste separation in projects that seek to recover waste. This campaign, organised by FEUGA, won the 2021 edition award thanks to its creativity, impact and participatory nature, which reaffirmed the project’s good work in terms of communication.

 

This activity is in addition to those previously carried out by the Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León last school year, as well as the four carried out by FEUGA and CETAQUA in four schools in Galicia. In this way, Ecoval Sudoe reaches almost 600 students aware of this issue, bringing science closer to citizens and helping to build a sustainable future based on the principle of circular economy.

 

 

ECOVAL consortium meets in Toulouse

 

The National Institute of Applied Sciences of Toulouse (INSA Toulouse) hosted the consortium meeting of the Ecoval Sudoe project in the same French city on Wednesday and Thursday (23 and 24 November, respectively) in order to share and present the progress achieved so far, as well as the next steps to be taken.

 

The kick-off was at nine o’clock in the morning, where CETAQUA made an introduction and presentation of the project, as well as its contribution to it from a biotechnological perspective to valorise organic waste. Subsequently, the rest of the actors (FEUGA, INSA TBI, NEREUS, USC BioGroup, ADTA, FPNCyL and Porto Ambiente) presented their different contributions to Ecoval Sudoe until midday, when there was a break to resume the activity in the afternoon.

 

On Thursday, the consortium visited the Ginestous Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Toulouse to observe first-hand how the city’s sewage sludge is currently treated. It also analysed its potential for transformation into a biofactory, as pursued by the Ecoval Sudoe model to promote a more sustainable and circular economy.

 

This consortium meeting is the fifth one held by the project, after the last one organised last June in the city of Porto, hosted by Porto Ambiente. In this type of events, synergies are generated between the different agents and are a key element for the proper functioning of all types of projects, even more so in the case of Ecoval Sudoe due to the multiplicity of actors, interests and challenges faced with the aim of promoting a circular and sustainable business model in a context of green transition.

ECOVAL presents its project for LIFE ECODIGESTION 2.0

 

ECOVAL participated today in an event organised by the Finnova Foundation for the LIFE ECODIGESTION 2.0 project in the framework of the European Week for Waste Reduction. The main objective of this event is the dissemination of projects and organisations committed to waste management and green transition in Europe to raise awareness on sustainable management of resources and waste.

In the meeting, which took place telematically, Ecoval Sudoe presented its project, focused on the valorisation of urban organic waste for the production of high added value compounds such as Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs), together with other innovative initiatives. FEUGA, Ecoval Sudoe’s main partner in charge of communication, also participated in the presentation of the BIOMASA CAP and BIOMASA AP projects, which seek the valorisation of biomass waste through the production of biofuels.

The day began with the presentation by LIFE ECODIGESTION 2.0 of its project, which promotes the maximisation of biogas generation and the increase of energy self-sufficiency of wastewater treatment plants. Other participants to highlight were G2G Algae, focused on the cultivation of microalgae as a solution for the purification of polluted effluents, or LIFE INFUSION, which is responsible for the recovery of nutrients, biogas and water from polluted water.

 

Finnova is a European foundation that supports the financing of companies, regions or municipalities and, among its areas of expertise, includes water and waste management. In this context and as the coordinating body of LIFE ECODIGESTION 2.0, it convened Ecoval Sudoe and the above mentioned innovative projects on the occasion of the European Week for Waste Reduction. This week is the biggest waste prevention awareness raising event in Europe and is therefore of paramount importance for the dissemination of Ecoval Sudoe’s activity.

Participation in events of this kind reinforces Ecoval Sudoe’s commitment to cooperation and knowledge transfer with different agents in the biotechnology sector specialising in waste treatment and the economic recovery of waste, promoting the transition towards a more sustainable and circular society.

ECOVAL puts the brown container on the map

Ecoval Sudoe goes a step further in its commitment to the implementation and correct use of the brown bin by creating a map that allows visualising the first separation bins for the organic fraction installed in different cities of the European Union. This tool is a new commitment of the project to disseminate and raise public awareness of the importance of recycling, and in particular the proper use of the brown bin.

The “treasure map” is a playful tool with which the brown bins can be visualised geographically and was created thanks to the active collaboration with users of social networks. The aim of the map is to disseminate the evolution of the gradual implementation of the fifth container and to familiarise the general public with its presence. The map also shows that the colour code sometimes varies, with this container being blue or green in cities such as London or Oleiros.

The project’s website also contains other materials such as videos and posters or a good practice guide, which allow visitors to answer their questions about the correct separation of waste, as well as interactive games to test the knowledge acquired.

The brown bin is becoming more common in cities as a result of the European Waste Management Directive, as a key element to be able to recycle the organic fraction separately. Its implementation has been irregular so far, as not all cities have brown bins, although it should be present in all European cities by 2024.

The correct separation of waste is extremely important for projects such as Ecoval Sudoe. Without proper separation, innovative processes such as the one implemented by the project could not be carried out.

 

Campaign “Another bin, are you in?”

 

The “treasure map” is a new element of the campaign “Another bin, are you in?”, launched by the Galician University Enterprise Foundation (FEUGA) for the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) 2021. The campaign focused on raising public awareness of the importance of correct waste separation, with a special focus on organic waste, the brown bin and the inappropriate use of the toilet as a waste bin.

In June 2022, the campaign was awarded the European Special Prize in Brussels in recognition of its impact, creativity and participatory nature. The European Week for Waste Reduction is the biggest waste prevention awareness-raising event in Europe, which was an important media boost for the Ecoval Sudoe project and confirms its good work in the field of communication and public awareness-raising.

 

ECOVAL organises a waste collection on Tambo Island as part of Let’s Clean Up Europe 2022 campaign

 

On the 15th of November, the ECOVAL SUDOE project will carry out a waste collection campaign in which second year students from Los Sauces secondary school will participate. The activity will take place in Tambo Island (Poio, Pontevedra), on the occasion of the European Week of Waste Reduction and framed in the initiative Let’s Clean Up Europe 2022, which aims to clean the largest number of sites on the European continent while raising awareness among citizens about the volume of waste present in their localities. One of the objectives of this activity from ECOVAL is to educate new generations about the importance of recycling and preserving a healthy and clean environment, as well as to join forces between different groups to generate synergies around the project.

 

The event, jointly organised by FEUGA and CETAQUA with the collaboration of VIAQUA and the Council of Poio will start at 9:30 am and, after the cleaning of the island, those responsible for the activity will give a talk on the importance of the correct separation of waste at source and the brown bin for organic matter, without which the ECOVAL project could not be carried out. Indeed, proper waste separation is essential for innovation and economic projects to be carried out, as organic waste and sewage sludge are the raw material on which the ECOVAL Sudoe project feeds, transforming this waste into high added value products such as Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs), valuable resources for the plastics and agrochemical industries.

 

Back on land, the students will finally visit the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) of Os Praceres (Pontevedra), managed by Viaqua, where the key process of urban wastewater treatment will be explained to the students, emphasizing the individual responsibility of each citizen in this project and the benefits it brings to society as a whole. It is vitally important that young people are aware of this process and, consequently, of the problems caused by improperly flushing waste down the toilet, such as clogged sewers and treatment plants and the degradation of the oceans’ wealth.

 

This activity is included in ECOVAL’s awareness campaign on the separation of organic waste aimed at the new generations, joining those previously carried out in six schools in Castilla y León by the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León, as well as the four carried out by FEUGA and CETAQUA in four schools in Galicia. In this way, ECOVAL reaches the figure of approximately 450 students aware of this issue, bringing science closer to citizens and helping to build a sustainable future based on the principle of circular economy.

ECOVAL participates in the Green Technology Expo ECOMONDO

 

ECOMONDO is a platform that aims to bring together all sectors of the circular economy to foster synergies and collaborations, from materials and energy recovery to sustainable development. The ECOMONDO exhibition is the European benchmark event for technological and industrial innovation in the Mediterranean basin, organised by the Italian Exhibition Group (IEG), and will be attended by ECOVAL.

 

It will take place at the expo centre in Rimini, between 8 and 11 November. ECOVAL will participate in it with the presentation of a poster, which summarizes the activity of the project focusing on the innovative technologies it provides for the recycling and recovery of waste. It also provides information on the initial problems and how the project works, who the partners are and what role they play in the development of the project, the funding available and the expected results.

 

The exhibition groups its themes into four main blocks: waste and resources, water, circular bioeconomy and recovery of contaminated sites and hydrogeological risk. ECOVAL’s poster is part of the first of these, which focuses on integrated waste management, processing technology, waste transport and machinery. Its session is entitled “Waste as Resources: Innovative  technologies  for  recycling and recovery” and will take place on Tuesday 8 November between 09:30 and 17:30hrs. ECOVAL’s contribution will coexist with other talks and posters from other related European projects such as BIOBESTicide, Circular Biocarbon, MED4WASTE or CISUFLO.

 

Leading the ecological transition.

ECOMONDO offers an extensive programme of conferences, workshops and seminars to present national and international success stories and trends in the circular economy, including, in addition to the fields mentioned above, the construction, packaging, electronics and automotive industries. Supporting the development of sustainable businesses, fostering networking in an innovative and circular ecosystem and providing tools and information on research and development regulations for existing companies are its central objectives.

 

In the last edition, the ECOMONDO exhibition accumulated almost 70,000 attendees from multiple countries and brought together 1,116 diverse companies in its 500 total hours of events, with great repercussion in the media and social networks. This year’s edition dedicates special spaces to innovation start-ups, food waste, the textile industry and environmental protection.

 

The presence of the European Commission through various related bodies is noticeable, with a dedicated exhibition stand and participation in various CINEA, EISMEA and REA activities. Thus, participants will be given the possibility to catch up with the latest European funding opportunities for the circular economy.

The campaign “A new bin, are you in?” travels to the CRA of Vilaboa

La campaña “Otro contendor, ¡qué marrón!” viaja de la mano de FEUGA hasta el CRA de Vilaboa

After the good reception of the activity in Colexio Mendiño, the ECOVAL campaign “A new bin, are you in?” is approached by the hand of FEUGA to the CRA of Vilaboa, a multilingual infant school, with children between 3 and 6 years old.

Following the values of the European Week for Waste Reduction, in which the campaign was born, and as part of the celebration of the World Recycling Day (17th May), the activity focused on transmitting to the youngest the importance of separating waste in the correct way in order to achieve a more sustainable world.

The implementation of the brown bin is not yet widespread throughout Europe, but in Vilaboa they have been separating organic waste for many years. The Green Point managed by the council is becoming a benchmark at provincial level, being able to manage up to 750 tonnes of organic waste per year, mainly from pruning and gardening.

Ecoval was in charge of reinforcing this positive attitude towards recycling in the classroom, explaining the processes involved in this type of circular economy and how each individual can collaborate at home to achieve a much greater collective benefit.

 

The activities to be carried out with the students were eminently practical, favouring more effective learning. A short introductory talk accompanied by animated videos provided the appropriate context to move on to action. As a practical exercise, each child received a piece of waste to be analysed and deposited in the corresponding container. Once all the waste had been sorted, the children were asked to check whether they had really sorted it correctly, correcting it together and discussing what they had learnt.

Taking advantage of the occasion, the importance of avoiding food waste and not using the toilet as a waste bin was also introduced, as many environmental problems are caused by flushing items such as wet wipes, cotton buds or plasters down the toilet, among others.

Activities such as this, which provide information about recycling and waste reduction in the classroom, are a key element in creating conscientious adults and bringing us closer to the sustainable world we all want to achieve.