5. Transform wastewater from
a waste stream into a
source of new added-value
products
The challenges:
Main pressures on water
resources: climate change,
pollution, urbanisation, water
scarcity…
Expensive cost of operation
and maintenance of
wastewater treatment
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
6. INCOVER Objectives
6
Main objectives: to reduce at least 50% overall operation and maintenance
(O&M) costs of conventionnal WW treatment and alleviate water scarcity
Validate innovative technologies at demonstration scale to
obtain bio-products
Develop innovative monitoring techniques (optical sensing
and soft sensors)
Assess their cost-effectiveness and sustainability
Develop a tailored Decision Support System for selecting the
most technical, social and cost efficient treatment solution
Develop strategies to facilitate a rapid market access
7. 3-year project : June 2016 – May 2019
Funding by EU H2020 (Topic: Water1b-2015); GA: 689242;
7.2 millions EU contribution (Total budget: 8.4 millions)
Project coordinator
18 partners
7
INCOVER project details
9. At Chiclana and Almeria
AQUALIA facilities (Spain)
At Helmholtz – Centre
for environmental
research (Germany)
At Universitat Politecnica
de Catalunya (Spain)
Municipal
Agricultural
wastewater
Municipal
wastewater
Industrial
wastewater
Innovative monitoring techniques via optical sensing monitoring
Tailored Decision Support System for selecting the most technical, social and
cost effective solutions
INCOVER Case studies
10. Municipal and agricultural wastewater (Barcelona – Spain)
Hybrid horizontal tubular photobioreactor
Pretreatment unit
Digestate tank
Biogas cleaning
Sludge
Treatment
Wetland
P sorption columns
Case study 1
12. Industrial wastewater (Leipzig – Germany)
(Grey wastewater + C-rich wastewater)
Non-sterile process to produce citric acid in decentralised treatment
Case study 3
13. 13
INCOVER main technologies
PHA production
- PhotoBioReactor system
- High Rate Algae Pond
Organic acid production
Physical and thermal pre treatment
Anaerobic codigestion process
Integral biogas upgrading
14. 14
INCOVER main technologies
Nutrient recovery :
- Adsorption columns
- Planted filters
Solar-driven disinfection :
- Anodic oxidation
- Ultrafiltration
Smart irrigation system
Anaerobic digestate valorisation:
- Sludge treatment wetlands
- Evaporative systems
- HTC process
Optical sensing and monitoring
16. Visit our website www.incover-project.eu
Follow us on Twitter
Contact us : incover-project@oieau.fr
16
More information
17. 17
Thank you !
The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 689242
19. INCOVER Pitches
- Carlos Alberto Arias, Senior Researcher, Department of
Bioscience – Aquatic biology, Aarhus University
- Peder Gregersen, CEO, Centre of Recirkulering
- Alexander Wolf, Project Engineer, Water Treatment Systems,
SolarSpring
- Andreas Aurich, Scientist, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for
Environmental Research
- Pedro García Encina, Institute of Sustainable Processes,
University of Valladolid
20. Recovery of N & P from
Wastewater
Carlos Alberto Arias
Aarhus University
Local Renewables Conference 2018
24-26 October 2018, Freiburg
21. 21
New developments using coated materials for
the recovery of N&P from wastewater
• Phosphorus from unsatisfactory wastewater discharge to the
environment can have detrimental effect on receiving water bodies.
• Phosphorus removal is commonly tackled using chemical
precipitation.
• Chemical precipitation implies the use of coagulants-flocculants,
resulting in large volumes of solids and limiting the recovery of P for
other uses.
• Engineered materials with P binding capacity can allow the removal
as well as direct recovery of P for agriculture and other activities
• The selected material and the production processes must have P
adsorption capacity while being able to release the bound P.
• The capacity can be optimized by coating the material to improve
hydraulic and P removal capacity
26. 26
N&P recovery in an evaporative system in
Chiclana, Spain
In evaporative systems trees are for used for digestate
and the aim is to uptake macro-nutrients N:P:K in the
biomass and use it
as fertilizer directly in hot climates.
The system is in total 250 m2 in two separate parts:
- The west part has to its limits for first year received
432.74 kg DM
- The east past has received 700.91 kg.
Test will be done on nutrients, heavy metals, xenobitic
substances and phatogens. No serious amounts will be
expected as long as the origin of wastewater is domestic.
27. 27
N&P recovery in an evaporative system in
Chiclana, Spain
1.2 %
Drymatter
30 % Drymatter
Only energy used is for distribution of digestate
28. 28
N&P recovery in an evaporative system in
Chiclana, Spain
Two output
Dried sludge with 30 % Dry Matter
Wood with expected 50 % Dry Matter
29. 29
N, P & K recovery in an evaporative willow
system, Denmark
30. 30
N, P & K recovery in an evaporative willow
system, Denmark
Nutrients uptake in kg /ha First year production on second
year root
Clone Bjørn Jorr Tora
Fraction Stem
s
Leave
s
Total Stems Leave
s
Total Stems Leave
s
Total
Tons
DM
/ha
9,4 1,4 10,8 10,0 2,1 12,1 10,1 1,5 11,6
Total N 120,
0
50,4 170,4 101,9 68,1 170,0 89,0 48,1 137,1
P 26,0 7,3 33,3 27,0 11,5 38,4 25,9 4,4 30,3
K 85,4 61,7 147,1 121,2 91,8 213,0 123,0 75,3 198,3
Production increase to 16 to 19 tonnes of drymatter in average of 1st to 3th year.
31. 31
N, P & K recovery in an evaporative willow
system, Denmark
Heavy metal uptake in g /ha First year production on second year root
Clone Bjørn Jorr Tora
Fraction Stems Leaves Total Stems Leaves Total Stems Leaves Total
Tonnes
DM/ha
9,4 1,4 10,8 10,0 2,1 12,1 10,1 1,5 11,6
Cd 1,645 0,226 1,871 3,604 0,331 3,934 3,414 0,292 3,705
Pb 0,387 0,331 0,718 0,515 0,728 1,242 B. det.l 0,420 -
Zn 200,815 24,806 225,620 205,894 49,050 254,944 253,472 31,891 285,363
Cu 14,517 3,007 17,523 23,163 6,062 29,225 15,518 4,441 19,959
Ni 1,935 0,053 1,988 1,647 0,287 1,933 1,242 0,118 1,360
Cr 7,743 0,601 8,344 19,560 1,323 20,883 9,311 0,646 9,957
Hg 0,173 0,132 0,305 0,186 0,194 0,380 0,186 0,142 0,328
33. 33
Solar driven Ultrafiltration - Technology Benefits
• Water reuse from pre-treated
wastewater for agriculture,
irrigation or municipal cleaning
purposes
• Reliable water quality up to
99,9999% retention of particles,
microorganisms, bacteria and
99,99 % of viruses
• Low specific water production cost of 0,10€/m³
• Environmentally friendly due to chemical free operation
• Completely automatic operation
• Low maintenance and operation costs
36. Yeast based bioprocesses
for organic acids
Andreas Aurich,
Steffi Hunger, Norbert Kohlheb, Roland A. Müller, Mi-Yong Lee
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig – UFZ
Local Renewables Conference 2018
24-26 October 2018, Freiburg
37. Eco-Technologies in Case-study 3 (Leipzig)
for a circular economy
37
Carbon rich
Wastes
Yeast Bioreactor +
Membrane Filtration
One Stage AcoD
(yeast)
HTC
System
Organic
Acids
Yeast biomass
Bio-Coal
Activated Coal
Carbon Black
Biogas
Digestate
Yeast bioprocess for Citric acid
Industrial
Wastewater
Why is citric acid a target for circular economy?
Important biotechnological bulk chemical - 1,600,000 t/a
Various applications as cleaner, decalcifier, acidification,
food & beverage additive (E330), blood stabilizer
Centralized world scale production local consumption
Use of sugars as carbon source food vs. fuel controversy
39. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Citricacid[g/L]
Time [h]
WFO + WW - sterile
WFO - sterile
WFO + WW
- non-sterile
Results of Citric acid production with
Waste frying oil and different types of WW
Non-sterile CA bioprocess comparable with results under sterile conditions
(Patent application: Aurich, Hunger, Lee, Kohlheb, Müller (2017) PCT/EP2017/065589)
CA concentrations are exceeding industrial process with A. niger
39
Yarrowia lipolytica Wastewater + WFO Time
(h)
CA
(g/L)
Producti-
vity
(g/L*h)
Oil & Fat
separator discharge
95-165 128-145 0.8 - 1.2
Kitchen cleaning discharge 190 182 0.95
Urban WW 190 134 0.7
Industrial Aspergillus niger
process with sugars,
molasses
120-144 100-140 0.8 – 1.0
40. 40
Advantages and main impacts of yeast based
CA production with wastewater and wastes
Bioprocess for high-value products under non-sterile conditions
Low equipped bioreactors reduce costs of invest and
energy demand (e.g. sterilization)
Allows valorization of local & regional wastes & WW in a decentralized
environment and on-site consumption of bio-products
Strengthening of a circular economy by closing the material circuits
(Reuse of waste & WW; residual yeast biomass for biogas)
Substitution of conventional Oil&Fat separators in food industries and
kitchen services
41. Photosynthetic biogas upgrading
in WWTPs
Pedro García Encina
Institute of Sustainable Processes
University of Valladolid
Local Renewables Conference 2018
24-26 October 2018, Freiburg
46. Wastewater plants in the circular city:
An ambition to achieve or a dream far
away?
- Christian Loderer, Project and innovation manager,
Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin
- Francis Meerburg, Research study responsible in R&D, Aquafin
- Gerard Pol-Gili, Project manager, Renewable Energy,
Eurometropolis of Strasbourg
- Juan A. Álvarez Rodríguez, INCOVER coordinator & research
strategy manager on environment, AIMEN