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Knowledge category: Projects

REcovery and REcycling of nutrients TURNing wasteWATER into added-value products for a circular economy in agriculture

Updated on 21.06.2024

This project's main objective was the development of a demonstrative application for slaughterhouse wastewater treatment and large-scale nutrient recovery in a real case study.

Acronym: Water2REturn
Countries: Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Romania, Italy, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom
Project website: www.water2return.eu
Start and end date: 01.07.2017 - 31.03.2022
Budget: 7 075 920 EUR
Funding source: Horizon 2020

More information

Other objectives included:

 

  • Manufacturing of organic-source fertilisers and biostimulants.
  • Nutrients recovery and reduction of wastewater discharged to the environment by 90%.
  • Reduction of waste diverted to landfills by 80%.
  • Energy self-sufficiency through biogas upgrading and valorisation, reducing CO2 and GHGs emissions.
  • Creation of new business opportunities and green jobs.
  • Promotion and wide and fast market uptake of W2R processes and products, while improving their acceptance through capacity building and awareness raising.

Relevance for Circular Systemic Solutions

The deliverables of this project can help cities and regions working on CSSs related to bioeconomy, specifically on biowaste valorisation and biobased fertiliser production from water-intensive industries like slaughtering. These deliverables address many stakeholderrs such as the users of the project's technology and methodology, investors and business developers who are interested in the project's Life Cycle Analysis and Environmental Technology Verification, as well as policy-makers interested in roadmaps toward fostering EU implementation of nutrient recovery from industrial wastewater streams. In this way, this project's deliverables can be useful in all phases of CSS deployment (i.e.: Map, Design, Implement).

Main results and lessons learnt

The project produced a number of relevant and useful outputs, including:

 

  • Report on occupational health & safety
  • Policy brief and roadmap to foster EU implementation of nutrient recovery from industrial wastewater stream
  • Report on LCA goal and scope definition
  • User Manual
  • ETV certification

 

These and more can be found on: https://water2return.eu/public-library/

Horizon programme and topic

Programme:

 

  • H2020-EU.3.5. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

 

Topic:

 

  • CIRC-02-2016-2017 - Water in the context of the circular economy

Responsible organisation and contact details

BIOAZUL, SL

 

Contact the project: https://water2return.eu/contact/

Project consortium partners

  • BIOAZUL SL
  • UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA
  • UNIVERSIDAD DE CADIZ
  • FUNDACION PUBLICA ANDALUZA CENTRODE LAS NUEVAS TECNOLOGIAS DEL AGUA
  • AGROINDUSTRIAL KIMITEC SL
  • ADVENTECH - ADVANCED ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES LDA
  • ALGEN
  • CENTER ZA ALGNE TEHNOLOGIJE
  • DOO
  • UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
  • SLOROM SRL 
  • ENCO SRL, 2B Srl
  • UNION EUROPEENNE DU COMMERCE DU BETAIL ET DE LA VIANDE
  • ISITEC GMBH
  • EXERGY LTD
  • EUROPEAN LANDOWNERS ORGANIZATION
  • SLOROM D&C DRAGHICENI SRL
Sectors

CEAP2 key product value chain

CEAP2 key product value chain

CEAP2 key product value chain

including bio-based economy

e.g. B2B services

e.g. chemicals, cosmetics, bio-based industries

e.g. electrical engineering, furniture and interior, textile and fashion

Territories involved

large 500 000-200 000, medium 200 000-50 000, and small cities 50 000-5 000

large metropolitan area >1.5 million, metropolitan area 1.5 million-500 000

predominantly urban regions, intermediate and predominantly rural regions, refer to TERCET typology NUTS 3 region

Intra-territorial areas

e.g. commercial, residential, service, industrial