Águas Do Tejo Atlântico: overcoming barriers and sludge pre-treatment at ECOVAL

aguas do tejo atlantico ecoval

ECOVAL Sudoe proposes a new approach to the management of organic waste based on its recovery to obtain volatile fatty acids (VFA), secondary raw materials useful for industries such as plastics, lubricants or agrochemicals.

Águas do Tejo Atlântico (AdTA), a member of the ECOVAL consortium, is collaborating in overcoming technical and legal barriers to the valorisation of VFA from sewage sludge and bio-waste. This requires the cooperation of different actors in the SUDOE region (sewage and waste companies, research centres, environmental authorities, legal advisors and sector associations) to change the legal framework that allows the use of products obtained from waste. In order to identify barriers, two participatory workshops were held in which the similarities in the legal and operational management of this type of waste in the 3 countries could be verified.

On the other hand, AdTA has focused on sludge pre-treatment to maximise VFA production. To this end, tests were carried out with pulsed electric field technology using waste sludge from the biological treatment of the Frielas WWTP and thickened mixed sludge from the Beirolas WWTP. The two tests were carried out to check if there is any advantage in the pretreatment of only biological sludge and if the solids content of the sludge affected the effectiveness of the pulsed electric field technology.

Finally, AdTA has participated in the quantification of the sludge produced in Portugal, as well as its quality. This work will support the analysis of environmental and economic sustainability that will be carried out in the project, framed in Working Group 6 of the Project: Replicability and transferability of the business model and its environmental and economic assessment.

CETAQUA showcases ECOVAL’s advances in sustainable waste management at CORFU

CETAQUA showcases ECOVAL's advances at CORFU

The International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management (also called CORFU 2022) took place on the Greek island of Corfu from 15-18 June. This year, in its ninth edition, it sought to address the important issue of sustainable solid waste management by promoting safe practices and effective technologies. It aimed to stimulate the interest of scientists and citizens and inform them about the latest developments in the field of municipal solid waste management. The exhibitions were located in the Municipal Theatre in the city center, but could also be viewed online, subject to prior registration and booking.

 

The topics discussed were closely related to the ECOVAL project and its innovations. Therefore, on Thursday 16th at 18:00hrs, Ánder Castro, researcher at CETAQUA, presented the results obtained through experimentation in the pilot WWTP of Ourense. The paper is entitled “Thermal hydrolysis pre-treatment has no positive influence on VFA production from sewage sludge” and is the result of the research carried out by Ánder himself together with S. Balboa, V. Paramá, B. Álvarez, C. Castro-Barros, J.M. Lema and A. Taboada-Santos. It is part of session XV of the event, in room 3, dedicated to the waste valorisation.

 

More specifically, the talk dealt with the effect of sewage sludge pre-treatments (in particular the so-called thermal hydrolysis) on the production of volatile fatty acids. This knowledge is very useful to reinforce the overall objective of the conference: to go a step further in solid waste management, for which it helps a lot to learn how to achieve value-added products by applying biorefinery processes to them.

 

The conference was a great opportunity to brought together scientists and professionals from government departments, industry, municipalities, universities, private companies and research centres, providing a forum for the exchange of the latest ideas and techniques in the world of waste management.

Schools in Palencia discover the importance of sorting organic waste

sorting organic waste palencia schools

The ECOVAL awareness campaign that the Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León is carrying out in Palencia was extended to the young people of the city. It has been through a series of meetings in different schools and institutes that began on 16 May and ended on 30 May at the Divino Maestro Educational Foundation.

On their journey, these educational days passed through the Colegio Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the CEIP Ciudad de Buenos Aires, the CEIP Jorge Manrique, the Colegio Tello Téllez de Meneses or the Centro de Formación Profesional Camino de la Miranda. In a total of 11 sessions distributed among these schools, plus Divino Maestro, the campaign reached a total number of 248 students. Ages ranged from 8 to 16 years old. If we add to this figure the students reached by the campaign through the partners FEUGA and CETAQUA in the schools CRA of Vilaboa, Filomena Dato and Colexio Mendiño we reach approximately 400 students aware of waste separation.

 

The circular economy as a regenerative economy.

The educational sessions were structured through an interactive and participatory procedure designed for schools and institutes in which the work carried out by Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León in the transmission of the circular economy as a regenerative economy is presented. It consists of a game of questions and answers that will allow students to understand the value and the cycle of organic matter in a circular economy model, understanding the different useful tools, such as the prevention of food waste or the correct separation of waste. A team of environmental educators were in charge of carrying it out.

This campaign has also included posters on buses and bus shelters, the organisation of the Palencia Businessmen’s Conference and the publication of a Guide to Good Practices that provides information on the problem of urban organic waste and how it can be tackled at home. All of this is focused on disseminating and raising awareness across the board of the possibilities that the ECOVAL project offers for the management of sludge and urban organic waste.

ECOVAL Sudoe, the circular solution to replace fossil fuels

Industries are increasingly aware of the importance of implementing policies that respond to the context of the environmental crisis we are facing, with “reduce, reuse and recycle” being the new guidelines to be established in their ways of operating. Many decide to get involved and collaborate in research projects capable of developing innovative technologies aimed at taking advantage of waste or resources that have already been used to generate new goods, providing alternatives that are friendlier to the planet.

The urgency to apply circular alternatives in production processes to minimise the damage they can generate is one of the reasons why companies such as Repsol, Fertiberia or Grupo Valora have joined to support R&D&I projects such as those currently being developed in the Ourense biofactory, managed by Viaqua, in order to build a future where fossil fuels are no longer essential.

ECOVAL Sudoe, led by Cetaqua, the Water Technology Centre, and co-financed by the Interreg Sudoe Programme through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), is a project that aims to offer solutions of real application for the chemical, petrochemical and fertiliser industries. “Wastewater treatment processes generate large quantities of sludge. These have traditionally been seen as a waste to be eliminated, however, in the ECOVAL project we demonstrate that they can be a product from which high added value raw materials are generated that have potential for application in the chemical and petrochemical industry to produce compounds such as lubricants, bioplastics, paints or adhesives,” explains Antón Taboada, Project Manager of the project in Cetaqua Galicia.

“Cetaqua is doing magnificent work in the optimisation of the integral water cycle and the conversion of wastewater treatment plants into biofactories,” says Enrique Espí, senior research scientist at Repsol’s Technology Centre, a partner in the European project.

Repsol, a partner in the project, says it is “especially interested” in the use of sewage sludge as an “alternative and renewable raw material” to be applied in the manufacture of its plastic materials, says Espí, who considers the task of transforming sludge that was considered a “waste to be eliminated” into a “new resource” to be particularly noteworthy, an action aligned with one of its major challenges: “to obtain zero net emissions by 2050”, he adds.

Sectors specialising in the production of fertilisers are also one of the potential recipients of the by-products generated in ECOVAL. This is the case of Fertiberia, which aims to develop new products that integrate nutrients recovered from bio-waste. In this way, the head of R&D&I projects at Fertiberia, María Cinta Cazador, sees the ECOVAL project as a possibility of “advancing along this path”, constituting an example where “the viability and commercialisation of the proposed solutions have taken into account the participation of this final part of the value chain” and where “all the parties are fed back and benefit”, she points out.

On the other hand, Valentín Jiménez, Director and Group Managing Director of the Valora Group, a company specialising in services and products for the agricultural sector and another of those interested in the use of this bio-waste to apply to their business model, explains that investing in “projects that make this a tangible reality is one of the most effective ways to actively fight for the conservation of our environment, not only on an environmental level, but also on a social and economic level”.

“We have always understood WWTP sludge as a resource that, under exhaustive control and necessary transformation, can be converted into high added value products with a huge potential market; even more so in our country, which is increasingly affected by the loss of organic matter from our soils”. Valentín Jiménez explains.

Regarding the path that is currently being taken to establish more circular models, Enrique Espí, from Repsol, refers to a current context in which the energy sector is facing “new challenges, but also new opportunities where public-private collaboration is going to be fundamental”.

Similarly, María Cinta Cazador, from Fertiberia, highlights the importance of forging alliances that allow progress to be made, considering that “there are great technical difficulties in reaching a management model that achieves the optimum environmental and is economically viable”. For this reason, she explains, “collaboration between them, research bodies and end users, in this case, the fertiliser industry, is fundamental”, she concludes.

We are raffling three packs of two Ecoval bags!

sorteo de dos bolsas de Ecoval

At ECOVAL we are celebrating and we are raffling off three packs of two Ecoval bags!

We know that sometimes separating waste in the right way is a bit complicated, and that’s why we have created the campaign “Another bin, are you in?” to explain in a simple way how the new organic waste bin works.

To celebrate World Recycling Day on 17 May, we are launching a prize draw for you to win two bags with the design of the brown bin, which will serve as a reminder of what kind of waste you can put in it.

Entering is easy, follow us on social media (Twitter or LinkedIn), share the giveaway post to help us reach more people and that’s it! That’s all it takes to enter the draw, which will be drawn at random. If you want to get an extra entry, subscribe to our newsletter! We promise not to saturate your inbox, you will receive two newsletters a year, with the most interesting content of the Ecoval project, and the latest news.

You can participate until 24 May at 23:59. The result of the draw will be announced on the project’s networks on 25 May. We will contact you if you win the draw to send you the bags at home, you won’t have to worry about anything! Just enjoy the bags and separate organic waste correctly in order to achieve a more sustainable world. With Ecoval there are no more excuses!

You can read the rules of the draw here.

Palencia’s businessmen discuss the waste management model promoted by ECOVAL

As part of the ECOVAL awareness campaign in the city of Palencia, promoted by the Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León, which since March has included posters on buses and bus shelters and training in schools, the Palencia Business Day took place on 16 May. The event brought together between 16:30 and 18:30 companies such as Aquona or Una mosca en mi sopa s.l. and institutions such as the City Council of Palencia. It was supported by the Palencia City Council, Aquona, the Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Hotel and Catering Businesses of Palencia. The venue was the Business Incubator of the Chamber of Commerce of Palencia in Santander Avenue nº44.

The programme of the conference included different talks and you can consult it in full here. After the welcome by Laura Díez (Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León) and Ricardo Terrades (Una mosca en mi sopa s.l.), the presentation of Aquona and the circular economy in Water Management began, accompanied by tips for good water management applied to the hospitality industry, by Laura de Vega Franco, Director of Sustainable Development of Aquona. This was followed by a coffee break and a session by Gabriel Rubí, head of the Environment Service, who came as a representative of the City Council, to talk about organic matter management, the fifth container (are you in?) and the plans and forecasts for waste management for entrepreneurs. Finally, Ricardo Terrades, Creative Director of Una mosca en mi sopa s.l. and expert in gastronomic communication and sustainability, close the day talking about the beneficial results of zero waste restaurants.

 

If you have any questions, please contact us at: +34 687 73 13 65.

Biogroup investigates how to optimise VFA production at ECOVAL

The transformation of waste into value-added products is an ambitious goal in the transition to a circular economy. This is what ECOVAL and other research projects are working towards. Among the possible angles from which to approach this mission, the conversion of organic waste by anaerobic fermentation (the so-called carboxylate platform) is one of the most promising emerging biorefineries that can valorise the organic carbon present in biowaste and sewage sludge into volatile fatty acids (VFA). These can be further processed into chemicals, biopolymers and biofuels, which are needed by a multitude of industries.

This technology, like all emerging technologies, also presents significant barriers. One of them, which prevents the generalisation of the carboxylate platform, is its poor selectivity, which leads to a mixture of acetic, propionic, butyric and valeric acid mainly, and the impossibility of isolating them. The USC Biogroup is tackling the challenge of selective sludge valorisation at ECOVAL with a multidisciplinary approach that integrates experimentation and mathematical modelling. Based on their previously developed tools to predict the fermentation products of sugars and proteins to sludge, they perform sludge fermentation experiments in which they measure how their main components change: the solubilisation of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, hydrolysis to produce sugars, amino acids and fatty acids, and finally fermentation to VFA.

The final objective is to provide operational guidelines to predict under which conditions (at which pH, with which residence time in the reactor, with which possible co-substrates) the production of each of the VFAs can be maximised, in line with ECOVAL’s WG 2, which focuses on the optimisation of this process.

Sludge acidification reactors of the Bipogroup laboratory

 

The Biogroup also wants to answer other questions through the activities developed in the ECOVAL project. These are: how can we select the best strategy for converting waste into resources from an environmental point of view among the technically possible ones; do we always have the guarantee that the environmental cost will be lower compared to the current management when we take into account the complete life cycle of the process?

 

In recent decades, it has become clear how unsustainable the traditional economic model based on a linear approach is.

Therefore, in contrast, there is a widespread conviction that this model should be replaced by a more sustainable model, in which the value of products, materials and resources is retained in the economy for as long as possible, and the value of products, materials and resources is retained in the economy for as long as possible, and waste generation is minimised: the so-called circular economy. And in this context, methodologies based on life cycle thinking are presented as the appropriate assessment tools to guide the development of processes in its transition.

The transition towards a circular economy model requires a new approach to waste management, which involves changing the way we see waste from a problem to a resource with the potential to develop added value. Considering that organic waste represents around 40% of the total municipal waste produced, the importance of its proper management and recovery is evident.

The possibilities are varied and depend on multiple factors, so ECOVAL, thanks to the Biogroup, will establish reference values, i.e. the quantification of the environmental impacts of current organic waste and sewage sludge management strategies in the SUDOE area, taking into account the regulatory requirements of imminent application. These values will determine the baseline for comparison of the environmental performance of the innovative strategies resulting from the project for obtaining high added value bioproducts from the treatment of the same waste. In this way, we will have concrete metrics with which to evaluate the impact of the new management system and the products derived from it in environmental terms, one of the tasks of WG 6: “Replicability and transfer of the business model and its environmental and economic assessment”.

R&D&I projects boost Ourense’s biofactory as a European benchmark in circular economy

The results obtained in the CIGAT Biofactory Joint Unit have boosted the development of new R&D&I solutions in the Ourense biofactory, through the new ECOVAL and WalNUT projects.

The Ourense Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is currently a benchmark in circular economy thanks to the transformation it has undergone in recent years by becoming a biofactory, i.e. a new model of facility based on the principles of circular economy, where water is regenerated for subsequent reuse, renewable energy is produced and waste is transformed into resources. In this way, the value of resources is maximised by promoting an energy-neutral model that contributes to zero waste.

The success of the results obtained in the CIGAT Biofactory Joint Unit, the result of the public-private collaboration between Viaqua, Cetaqua and the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN), has served as a basis for the development and implementation of new R&D&I projects, this time with a focus on Europe, such as H2020 Walnut and Interreg Sudoe ECOVAL.

Both projects, aligned with the 2030 Agenda, position Galicia as a European benchmark in terms of the implementation of innovative technologies developed for the efficient management of urban flows and the consequent use of waste for a lower environmental impact.

ECOVAL (Coordination strategies for the management and recovery of sludge and organic waste in the SUDOE region), headed by Cetaqua Galicia, is based on the valorisation of urban organic waste and sewage sludge to obtain bio-products such as Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA), useful for the plastics, lubricants and paint industries, among others. Walnut, led by CARTIF, seeks the recovery of nutrients and the subsequent production of biofertilisers, thus preventing the contamination of water bodies and promoting circularity in the fertiliser industry within the framework of the European Union.

 

More than 100 people attended the event “From wastewater treatment plants to biofactories: the potential of water in the circular economy”, to learn about the technical advances and results of the two European projects being developed in Ourense.

During the event “From wastewater treatment plants to biofactories: the potential of water in the circular economy”, held this morning in the auditorium of Ourense, leading representatives of public administration, universities and companies have come to discuss about the existing social, legal and market barriers for the valorisation of high added value products present in wastewater, useful for industry and agriculture.

The Deputy Mayor of Ourense, Armando Ojea, opened the event by highlighting “the development of research projects in Ourense, which allow giving a second chance to WWTP waste, making the city more sustainable”.

Actors from the entities involved, such as Agbar, Cetaqua and the CARTIF Technology Centre, have intervened to talk about the circular economy models implemented, the valorisation of matter in fatty acids and nutrients applied in the fertiliser industry carried out. On the other hand, the University of Vigo and FEUGA, have participated focusing on the legislative and transfer barriers for the transformation of wastewater treatment plants into biofactories.

The end users of the extracted resources, represented by Repsol, Fertiberia and Grupo Valora have highlighted during their interventions the viability of the application of these compounds in the chemical, petrochemical and fertiliser industries as a key step to promote circular and sustainable models.

During the round table moderated by the Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Juan Manuel Lema, representatives of the Diputación de Ourense, Cetaqua, Viaqua, Repsol, Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León (FPNCyL) and Fertiberia met to discuss the potential of water within the circular economy.

Juan José Vázquez, head of Water of the Xunta de Galicia in Ourense, has been in charge of closing the event highlighting the importance of projects like these to build a sustainable future and deal with the problem of the lack of resources and the increase of waste.

The day ended with a guided tour of the Ourense biofactory, where attendees had the opportunity to see, first hand, the facilities and technologies applied for both projects.

Turning mud into gold

This is what the NEREUS network is working on within the ECOVAL project. Ecoval Sudoe is developing a method for the extraction of high added value molecules, Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs), from processed sludge. The aim of the NEREUS project is to test a process for the extraction and purification of VFAs from sludge sent to them by the coordinator CETAQUA. This process must be economically viable and meet market specifications. In addition to this double constraint, there are legal barriers related to the recovery of bio-waste and sludge from wastewater treatment plants. This is why the Ecoval Sudoe project tries to go beyond what is established.

 

Extracting, sanitising, filtering and concentrating
NEREUS has developed a dynamic nanofiltration pilot plant with three major advantages: it extracts the molecules of interest from organic sludge, ensures their sanitisation and filters at low energy costs. After this first filtration stage, concentration processes are applied to achieve the desired objective.

Waste organic matter is further valorised at INSA Toulouse for energy production and through the land application study at the Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León.

ECOVAL Sudoe with World Water Day

World Water Day is held on 22nd March. In 2022, the spotlight is on groundwater: those that feed, apart from rivers and springs, wells and pumps. Life would not be possible without it. Most arid areas of the planet depend on this resource entirely, which supplies a large proportion of the water we use for consumption, sanitation, food production and industrial processes

Almost all fresh water in liquid form in the world is groundwater. In much of the globe, these reserves are being overexploited and we run the risk of weakening this resource. Moreover, as climate change worsens, groundwater is becoming increasingly critical, making it more necessary than ever to manage it sustainably, as well as reuse and give a second life to the other water sources that we have. The UN has just published its annual report on the state of water to mark the occasion of this day, and you can check it out here.

ECOVAL joins this celebration, which aims to raise awareness about the global water crisis and the need to seek measures to address it so that we can achieve Sustainable Development Goal No. 6: Clean water and sanitation for all by 2030. To get closer to that forecast, we cannot forget about wastewater and its management.

 

1 million, 300 thousand tonnes of sludge not reused

Urban wastewater treatment processes generate large amounts of sludge. In Galicia alone, over 150 thousand tonnes of this sludge are generated each year, which would fill the inside of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral every year. If we were to talk about the figure in the Sudoe space, it would rise to 1 million, 300 thousand tonnes.

This sludge has traditionally been seen as waste, but in the Ecoval Sudoe project we demonstrate the technical feasibility of its transformation into high value-added products such as Volatile Fatty Acids, which are transformed into adhesives, lubricants or paints in the chemical and petrochemical industry or fertilisers. A profound transformation in the management of the water cycle based on the circular economy and sustainability. The Ourense Biofactory thus allows us to go beyond the traditional concept of water purification to transform sludge into new valuable resources and guarantee a second life for it. You can learn more about the function of ECOVAL in wastewater recovery, which allows the cycle of this key resource to be extended for life, in the following video:

To follow the conversation about World Water Day 2022 online, you can use the hashtag #WorldWaterDay or check out the UN account dedicated to it.