LIFE Project: Innovative cost-effective multi-barrier treatments for water reuse for agricultural irrigation
- Type Project
- Status In progress
- Execution 2020 -2025
- Assigned Budget 3.390.078,00 €
- Scope Europeo
- Autonomous community Madrid, Comunidad de
- Main source of financing LIFE
- Project website Web del proyecto
LIFE PHOENIX will demonstrate a new flexible multi-barrier tertiary treatment system that adapts to different WWTP types and water characteristics. This new treatment will be applied in areas with high water stress in central and southern Spain and central Portugal.
Water scarcity in Europe is increasing due to climate change, especially in water-stressed areas of southern countries, particularly Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, and Portugal. Agriculture is the most important water user in the EU, accounting for around 40% of annual EU water use, but rising to 80% of water use in Mediterranean areas during the summer.
Wastewater reuse in the EU is still limited and is mainly implemented in countries with severe water scarcity. The amount of wastewater (WW) reused in the EU is approximately 1,100 Mm3/year (<0.5% of EU freshwater withdrawals), with Spain, Italy, and Portugal together accounting for more than 60%. The majority of reuse is for irrigation purposes, and some countries already irrigate using mainly treated WW (e.g., Cyprus uses >75% of treated WW for agriculture). Reusing treated effluent from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for agricultural irrigation has significant potential to reduce pressure on stressed freshwater sources. In water-stressed areas, the use of water resources for agricultural activities has negatively affected the quality of water bodies and necessitated obtaining water from alternative sources (e.g., interbasin transfers, energy-intensive desalination).
- Demonstrate and validate new cost-effective multi-barrier treatments in two types of WWTPs, on a large-medium scale in 3 WWTPs in Spain and Portugal and on a small scale in 2 WWTPs in Spain, using different combinations of cutting-edge and innovative technologies.
- Develop a Decision Support System (DSS) and a Sustainability Tool to ensure the viability of each case.
- Minimize health and environmental impacts by reducing harmful disinfection/oxidation products and ecotoxicity (by >80%), compounds of emerging concern (CEC) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) (by >90%), microplastics (by >97%), and carbon footprint (by 50%).
- Ensure water quality through online monitoring (e.g., toxins and pathogens) and offline analysis (e.g., ecotoxicity and ARB).
- Reduce the cost of tertiary treatment.
- Recover >90% of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus).
- Test reclaimed water and recovered fertilizers in experimental crop fields.
- Promote the replication, transferability, and market acceptance of new water treatment technologies.
- Evaluate environmental, social and economic impacts.
Obtain reusable water, complying with EU Class A wastewater reuse quality standards at three demonstration sites for testing large and medium-sized WWTP technologies (El Bobar, Almonte, and Fonte Quente WWTPs) and at two demonstration sites and one replication site for small-sized WWTP technologies (El Toyo, Talavera, and Pulpí WWTPs).
Validation of indicator microorganisms and performance objectives:
- (1) E. coli for pathogenic bacteria (5.0 log10 reduction),
- (2) coliphages for pathogenic viruses (6.0 log10 reduction)
- (3) Clostridium perfringens spores for protozoa (5.0 log10 reduction).
Minimized effects on human health and the environment of water reuse:
- reduced ecotoxicity of reclaimed water compared to drinking water (<5%),
- reduced levels of CEC and pesticides,
- less microplastics (less than 10 particles/m3),
- 50% reduction in the carbon footprint of tertiary treatment due to lower energy consumption,
- Total nitrogen (TN) in reusable water less than 2 g/m3 and total phosphorus (TP) less than 0.5 g/m3 (El Toyo and Talavera WWTP) due to zeolite adsorption.
Contribution to the protection of Doñana National Park by avoiding the use of 87.6 kJ/m3 of freshwater per year or irrigation with lower-quality water (Almonte WWTP).
Operation and maintenance (OPEX) costs are 50% lower (from €0.23 to €0.25/m3 compared to the current advanced tertiary system), mainly due to lower consumption of pretreatment chemicals, O3 reuse, low membrane fouling, improvements in oxidation/disinfection steps, and solar-powered technologies.
Reduced energy consumption (less than 0.8 kWh/m3) thanks to the use of UV-LED technologies and solar energy.
Testing of the 900 kg/year of zeolite loaded with NP obtained, together with 125 m3/year of reused wastewater, in 500 m2 of crop fields in the El Toyo and Talavera WWTPs (250 m2 each).
PHOENIX DSS and sustainability operational tool.
Replicability and transferability guides and a business plan.
10,000 visits to the project website, participation in workshops and events by more than 300 people, and publication of 8 articles. Six direct and indirect jobs created as a result of the project; Establishment of a participatory Stakeholder Advisory Panel, involving public authorities, utilities, NGOs and CSOs, and experts and practitioners, to ensure replicability and market acceptance of new technologies.
- Coordinator/entity name: Frank Rogalla
Postal address: C/ Federico Salmon, 13, 28016, Madrid,
- FCC AQUALIA SA
- microLAN(microLAN BV), Netherlands,AdP(AdP VALOR, Serviços Ambientais, S.A.)
- UAL-CIESOL(UNIVERSITY OF ALMERIA)
- NEWLAND(NEWLAND ENTECH EUROPE,S.L.)
- CETIM(Fundación Centro Tecnológico de Investigación Multisectorial)
- DIPALME(Diputación Provincial de Almería)
- CHG(Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadalquivir)
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