The eleven international partners of the REMEB project, an initiative co-financed by the European Union's Horizon 2020 program and led by FACSA, traveled to Norway to evaluate the latest results of their work at their most recent semi-annual meeting. This meeting served to share the progress achieved in the implementation, development, and validation of a ceramic membrane bioreactor for wastewater reuse in urban and industrial settings.
The REMEB project, which began in September 2015 with diverse objectives and high expectations, will conclude this August after more than 30 months of work. During this time, recycled ceramic membranes for wastewater filtration have been developed for the tile factory NATUCER in Onda, under the guidance of ITC-UJI and FACSA. Furthermore, the project has demonstrated its scalability and potential for replication in Europe, as these ceramic membranes have been manufactured on a pilot scale in other tile-producing countries such as Italy and Turkey, using local waste. This has fostered diversification within the ceramic sector, opening a new line of business.
Furthermore, it has been possible to valorize waste from different agro-industrial processes such as those from the tile sector, marble and olive oil production, which have been incorporated into the composition of these ceramic membranes, helping to reduce their manufacturing cost and decrease the volume of waste sent to landfills.
The most significant achievement, encompassing all the project's activities, is the development and validation of an advanced wastewater treatment system—an MBR membrane bioreactor—in a real-world setting. While this technology is already commercially available, its added value lies in its sustainability and lower cost compared to current systems.
The system has been implemented at the wastewater treatment plant in Aledo, a municipality in Murcia with around a thousand inhabitants and primarily dedicated to agriculture. The REMEB MBR has been treating wastewater for reuse in irrigation for the agricultural sector and will help alleviate the effects of the drought in the region.
The project is co-financed by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, under grant agreement no. 641998. It comprises international partners from seven countries, led by FACSA. Other participants include the Institute of Ceramic Technology ITC-UJI, the French engineering firm IMECA PROCESS, the Cypriot consultancy ATLANTIS, the Norwegian company BIOWATER, the Council of Chambers of Commerce of the Valencian Community, the Castellón-based environmental research and projects laboratory IPROMA, the Italian ceramic center CENTRO CERAMICO, the Turkish ceramic research center SAM, the Antonio Nariño University of Colombia, and the Wastewater Treatment and Sanitation Entity of the Region of Murcia, ESAMUR. Furthermore, REMEB has the support of the Castellón Provincial Council, which is promoting the project through the PARTENALIA association, of which it is a member.
More information about the project: www.remeb-h2020.com
