Incover project overview

14:30 – 16:00
Breakout Sessions Round 2
B2 The wastewater utility of the future. A key
player of the circular city?
#LocalRenewables @LR_Series

Project overview
4
Juan A. Álvarez Rodríguez
jaalvarez@aimen.es
INCOVER Coordinator

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

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

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

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

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

Municipal wastewater (Chiclana/Almería – Spain)
Chiclana site Almería site
Case study 2

Industrial wastewater (Leipzig – Germany)
(Grey wastewater + C-rich wastewater)
Non-sterile process to produce citric acid in decentralised treatment
Case study 3

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
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

15
INCOVER by-products
Bio-plastics (PHA)
Organic acids
Bio-fertilisers
Biochar
Treated water
Energy (biomethane)

Visit our website www.incover-project.eu
Follow us on Twitter
Contact us : incover-project@oieau.fr
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More information

17
Thank you !
The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 689242

Q&A
#LocalRenewables @LR_Series

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

Recovery of N & P from
Wastewater
Carlos Alberto Arias
Aarhus University
Local Renewables Conference 2018
24-26 October 2018, Freiburg

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

23
Nutrient removal tests in the field

N & P recovery in evaporative
systems
Peder K.S. Gregersen
Center for Recirkulering

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
Chiclana, Spain
1.2 %
Drymatter
30 % Drymatter
Only energy used is for distribution of digestate

28
Chiclana, Spain
Two output
Dried sludge with 30 % Dry Matter
Wood with expected 50 % Dry Matter

29
N, P & K recovery in an evaporative willow
system, Denmark

30
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
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

Solar-driven Ultrafiltration
Alexander Wolf
SolarSpring, Freiburg

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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

34
Solar driven Ultrafiltration- Technology details
outer pipe
Mulitbore membrane fiber
Mulitbore membrane fiber
epoxy resin
supportive structure
membrane layer

35
Solar driven Ultrafiltration- Capacity overview
5m³/day 25m³day 50m³/day 1000m³/day

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

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

Decentralized Citric acid production – Example:
Use of commercial kitchen & catering wastes
38
Low equipped
1 m3 IBC reactor
Feedstocks
Kitchen cleaning WW
Waste frying oil (WFO)
Products
Citric acid
Yeast biomass
• Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica
• Non-sterile process conditions
• Aerobic conditions, pH 4-5
• Technical grade CA (solution) for
non-food & pharma applications
• On-site consumption (e.g. cleaner)
Biogas

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
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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

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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

Photosynthetic biogas upgrading
in WWTPs
Pedro García Encina
Institute of Sustainable Processes
University of Valladolid

Technology: Photosynthetic Biogas upgrading
CH4(g)
CO2(g)
H2S(g)
Wastewater
Microalgae
Biomass
H2S (L)CO2 (L)
O2-freeCH4(g)
SO4
2-
(L)
O2 (L)
Treated
Water

Upgrading Capacity: 300 Nm3/h

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

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