SITRA participates in the LIFE AMIA conference to discuss advanced wastewater treatment

The conference 'Advanced wastewater treatment for water reuse in agriculture', organized by the partners of the research project LIFE AMIAHe managed to bring together more than a hundred people in Murcia to analyze the key aspects of this innovative project.

First, the project partners focused on communicating the progress and results achieved to date by LIFE AMIAThis initiative aims to promote the reuse of wastewater in treatment plants using low energy consumption technology and to minimize the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

FacsaOne of the project partners, through various presentations, explained the three stages of the water reuse treatment technology: compact anaerobic-aerobic treatment, microalgae, and advanced oxidation treatment using adsorption and electro-oxidation. EUROFINA-IPROMA, for its part, presented the results obtained to date regarding the removal of microcontaminants and the metagenomic tests performed.

Likewise, CEBAS-CSIC, another of the project partners, presented the experiments they are carrying out, both at the laboratory level and in the field, in greenhouses, to demonstrate that both the water obtained with the AMIA process and the microalgae and the sludge (fertilizers) meet the necessary agronomic requirements.

In this regard, it is worth noting that the Alhama de Murcia wastewater treatment plant, where the project is being carried out, currently has various crops such as lettuce, tomatoes, and lemons. In addition, four horticultural crops—melons, peppers, lettuce, and endive—are being cultivated in the greenhouses to evaluate the behavior of the added organic matter from an agronomic and environmental perspective.

This project is very close to achieving its goal of complying with the future regulations on water reuse in agriculture (EU Regulation 2020/741) in the most sustainable way possible. To this end, the partners highlighted that they have the first two low-energy technologies and that, to obtain the third, they have installed solar panels with two batteries to power the process most of the time.

The event featured Pedro Simón, technical director of ESAMUR, who outlined the challenges presented by the new European regulations. In addition, renowned speakers in the relevant fields participated. anaerobic treatment of water using membrane technology (Ángel Robles, UV), microalgae processes for both water treatment and biogas upgrading (Raúl Muñoz, UVa) and advanced oxidation processes for water regeneration (Sixto Malato, PSA-CIEMAT).

This group of experts intervened ZITHERwho had the opportunity to share his experiences in the anaerobic treatment of industrial wastewater, as well as the different technologies that exist depending on the treatment capacity and the type of influent to be treated, emphasizing the investment (CAPEX) and the maintenance cost (OPEX).).