• In three years, the initiative has managed to develop and validate a low-cost ceramic membrane bioreactor for wastewater treatment, manufactured from agro-industrial waste.
• Other Spanish entities have participated in the project, which has an international scope, such as the University Institute of Ceramic Technology ITC-UJI, the environmental laboratory IPROMA, the Sanitation Entity of the Region of Murcia ESAMUR and the Council of Chambers of Commerce of the Valencian Community.
REMEB is a project funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, covering areas related to climate action, the environment, resource efficiency and raw materials through the promotion of wastewater reuse, waste valorization and the development of new innovative and sustainable products.
It started in 2015 with a budget of €2,361,622 and funding of €1,909,292 and will conclude on August 31, 2018, after three years of work, with its objectives fulfilled.
The international consortium of the REMEB project, led by FACSA and in which Spanish entities such as the University Institute of Ceramic Technology ITC-UJI, the environmental laboratory IPROMA, the Sanitation and Purification Entity of the Region of Murcia ESAMUR and the Council of Chambers of Commerce of the Valencian Community have participated, with the support of the Castellón Chamber, can be proud of having developed an advanced sustainable wastewater treatment system; a membrane bioreactor (MBR) of recycled ceramics based on waste from various agro-industrial processes that will regenerate wastewater for agricultural use.
Other members of the consortium, prominent entities and companies in their countries, are the French engineering firm IMECA PROCESS, the Cypriot consultancy ATLANTIS Consulting Cyprus, the Norwegian engineering firm BIOWATER Technology, the Italian ceramic center CENTRO CERAMICO BOLOGNA, the Turkish ceramic research center SAM and the Antonio Nariño University (UAN) of Colombia.
Current ceramic membranes are manufactured from pure ceramic oxides (such as alumina, zirconia, or titania), which are expensive due to the cost of the raw materials and the complex manufacturing process. This limits the use of ceramic MBRs, despite them being one of the most advanced systems in the wastewater treatment sector.
Incorporating waste into the membrane composition not only reduces the volume of waste in landfills, promoting a circular economy, but also the price of this technology.
The solution provided by REMEB uses waste materials such as olive pits, from olive oil production, chamotte, a byproduct of the tile industry, and marble dust. In its first phase, the membranes were manufactured on a pilot scale in the ITC-UJI laboratory, and once the optimal composition was determined, they were produced by extrusion on a full scale at the Castellón-based tile company NATUCER, with ongoing support from the Institute of Ceramic Technology.
IMECA PROCESS designed, manufactured and installed the bioreactor at the planned location in close collaboration with FACSA.
The ceramic centers of Italy and Türkiye, Centro Ceramico and SAM, reproduced the ceramic membranes with local waste from both countries, thus confirming their capacity for international replicability.
Through the joint efforts of FACSA and ESAMUR, the system has been validated at a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) located in the municipality of Aledo, in the Region of Murcia, for the regeneration of wastewater and its subsequent reuse for agricultural purposes. The technology is also fully applicable to the industrial sector. The suitability of the chosen site for validation is noteworthy, as Murcia, known as the "vegetable garden of Europe," is one of the driest regions in Spain and a leader in wastewater treatment and reuse.
ATLANTIS Consulting has carried out the analysis for the replication and exploitation of the results obtained during the project, while the Norwegian company BIOWATER Technology has developed a Business Plan for the subsequent commercialization of the MBR REMEB.
The partner from Antonio Nariño University has studied the potential for implementing the technology in Colombia and other South American countries.
IPROMA, an accredited environmental studies laboratory in Castellón, has analyzed the water treated with the REMEB MBR system and the existing membrane system at the Aledo wastewater treatment plant. The results have determined that the effluent quality meets the requirements of current Spanish regulations regarding the reuse of treated wastewater (RD 1620/2007).
For its part, the Council of Chambers of the Valencian Community has coordinated the communication and dissemination tasks of the project, boosting its visibility through its different local and international networks.
Over the past three years, the project has been presented at multiple events in various countries where it has generated great interest: Spain, Brazil, Thailand, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece and Colombia, among others.
The project engineers have already expressed the REMEB consortium's commitment to continue research in this field after the project's completion, aiming to fully optimize the system. Their goal is to ensure its competitiveness against other existing technologies, thus facilitating its market entry.
More information about the REMEB project: www.remeb-h2020.com
