LIFE Project: Integrating the circular economy and biodiversity into sustainable wastewater treatment based on constructed wetlands
- Type Project
- Status In progress
- Execution 2020 -2025
- Assigned Budget 1.893.955,00 €
- Scope Europeo
- Autonomous community Castilla y León
- Main source of financing LIFE
- Project website Web del proyecto
LIFE RENATURWAT aims to demonstrate that reclaimed water can be obtained from WWTP effluents by combining nature-based solutions (NBS) and industrial waste to produce a high-quality water resource suitable for environmental uses, such as wetland restoration/conservation.
Water resource scarcity is a chronic problem in many southern regions of the European Union, and forecast models that incorporate the effects of climate change predict it will worsen and spread to northern regions. These water resources maintain the environmental quality of rivers and wetlands, but they are rapidly declining due to human activity. Pressure on natural water resources could be reduced by generating good-quality water resources from non-conventional sources in an environmentally sustainable and economically viable manner. Treated wastewater is an unconventional water resource that, with appropriate post-treatment, can guarantee the quantity and quality of water suitable for environmental uses. This is one of the uses envisaged in Spanish legislation on the reuse of reclaimed water (RD 1620/2007). The European proposal for water reuse only contemplates use for agricultural irrigation (COM/2018/337). The Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC, UWWTD) is the framework for ensuring minimum quality requirements for effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, water authorities must ensure compliance with the environmental objectives set out in the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), which include achieving good surface water status. However, the phosphorus discharge requirements established in the WWTP (1 or 2 mg/L) are insufficient for using treated water to feed wetlands or other lentic water bodies, due to their vulnerability to eutrophication. Furthermore, when drinking water is produced, one of the main wastes generated is sludge from the physical and chemical treatment of water. The management costs of this drinking water treatment sludge (DWTP) could be reduced if a suitable reuse option were found. One option is to use its adsorbent capacity as a phosphorus sorbent in wastewater post-treatment.
- Demonstrate the feasibility of reusing drinking water treatment sludge (DWTS), produced during one stage of the urban water cycle, in another stage, thereby valorizing this waste and transforming it into raw material.
- Optimize this reuse by using it as fill material for Vertical Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetlands (VFCW), thus favoring the biological processes that occur in plant roots.
- To demonstrate that the combination of an AHV, whose substrate is the DWTP, with a Free Surface Constructed Wetland (FSW) that houses diverse environments (free surfaces and vegetated areas) yields better environmental results than if only an FSW is available at the outlet of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
- Improve the quality of WWTP effluents by reducing their concentration of nutrients, emerging pollutants, priority substances, and pathogens, thereby increasing their biological biodiversity (e.g., aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, and insects); and thus improving the biodiversity associated with ecosystem services, such as pollination and insects for pest control in agriculture.
- Demonstrate that these NBS can become sanctuaries for endangered species and places of educational use.
- Develop specific guidelines for the design and operation of renaturation systems, to be included by the competent authorities among the improvements proposed in the bidding process for WWTP maintenance contracts.
- Conduct a life cycle analysis (LCA) and a cost-benefit analysis of this type of facility to demonstrate the suitability of its implementation.
- Establish water quality criteria for environmental uses, contributing to the development of Spanish legislation and European proposals on water reuse to restore or maintain ecosystem services.
The project contributes to the objectives of the EU Water Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive (92/42/EEC). By converting sludge into a resource, the project also contributes to EU waste management and circular economy policy. It is a good example of the integration of EU policies on water, waste, and biodiversity.
- Creation of a renaturation treatment system at the Valls dels Alcalans WWTP (Valencia, Spain), managed by the GOMSL (Government of the Basque Country), with the creation of wetland habitats on an estimated surface area of 300 m2, thus providing environmental services such as landscape integration, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity enhancement.
- Demonstration that the proposed treatment significantly improves the environmental quality of the WWTP effluent. Specifically, the following removal efficiencies are expected, based on pilot plant studies: total phosphorus (>50%), ammonium (>60%), organic matter (>25%), emerging contaminants (20-50%), pathogens (>80%).
- Improving aquatic biodiversity by increasing taxon richness in at least 50 aquatic invertebrate taxa and promoting colonization of the constructed wetland by species of amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, and terrestrial insects; producing a renatured water flow of between 50 and 250 m3/d, equivalent to a population of approximately 1,500, which will feed the receiving river (the Magro River in Valencia, Spain), contributing to improving its status in accordance with the Water Framework Directive.
- Implementation of an economically and environmentally viable method for processing and transporting DWTS.
- Implementation of a design and management tool for the proposed treatment scheme based on numerical water quality models, which will facilitate the implementation of this cost-effective technology anywhere under similar conditions.
- Development of a guide for the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of wastewater treatment plant effluent renaturation systems, which will help the competent authorities propose improvements in future wastewater treatment plant tenders.
- Coordinator/entity name: Miguel Martin Monerris
Postal address: Camino de Vera s/n., 46022, Valencia,
- Universitat Politècnica de València
- AdP(águas de Portugal, Serviços Ambientais, S.A.)
- EFE(AGENCIA EFE SAU, SME)
- UVEG(University of Valencia)
- EMIVASA(EMPRESA MIXTA VALENCIANA DE AGUAS SA)
- GOMSL(GLOBAL OMNIUM MEDIOAMBIENTE, S.L.)
- FGN(FUNDACIóN GLOBAL NATURE)
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