LIFE-ANSWER project will demonstrate an integrated and innovative technology for treating wastewater from breweries. The proposed technology will combine electrocoagulation and MET for the complete (100%) removal of wastewater pollutants. Bioe Group is the scientific manager.
IBERIMET, the national network of excellence that brings together the main Spanish groups in the field of Microbial Electrochemical Technologies (MET), held its first workshop at the University of Alcalá, Spain, early December. Abraham Esteve's Bioe-, coordinator of the project, was in charge of organizing the meeting.
The main Spanish groups that hold the leadership in the field of microbial electrochemical technologies have created IBERIMET, the National Network of Microbial Electrochemical Technologies. The aim of IBERIMET is to set-up a work group with all the national active groups in the field. From the very beginning (2003) Spanish researchers showed interest in playing an important role in this new-born discipline. After one decade, Spain is the European country with the largest number of researchers in the field, and coordinating H2020 projects MET-based.
Unleashing the small community economies potential through innovative wastewater treatments technologies and standing ready for further replication and market uptake, iMETland was born locally but incorporates a global applicability potential. Innovation stands in the creation of a virtuous circle connecting water, energy, ICT and land resources, safeguarding the surrounding environment. The project aims to construct and validate a full-scale application of an eco-friendly device to treat urban wastewater from small communities at zero-energy operation cost and generate pathogens-free water suitable for irrigation. Four different geographical locations, with very different climate conditions, will be the demonstration areas of the iMETland units: Mediterranean (Spain), North-Europe (Denmark), South-America (Argentina) and North-America (Mexico).
The concept comes from the integration of Microbial Electrochemical Technologies (MET) with the biofilter concept used in constructed wetlands. The combination of electroactive bacteria with innovative electroconductive material leads to outperformance of classical biofilters, resulting in 10-fold higher depuration rates than classical techniques.
Bioe Group was invited to talk at EXPO 2015 during the workshop “Luce Bioelettrica” project, born from the cooperation of Regione Lombardia, MIUR (Italian Education Ministery) and RSE researchers from Università degli Studi Di Milano. This project is running in EXPO Milano 2015, with the aim of introducing a general audience into the mechanisms of energy production from bacteria. Abraham Esteve Núñez talked about 'Bioelectrochemical systems: recovery energy and valuable products from wastewater' and show some of the applications that are the objet of projects like SmartWetland or the most recent iMETland granted by the H2020 programme.
Our outreach project PICSI-3D for students has been awarded as the Best Scientific Dissemination work at University of Alcalá. The programme is aimed at introducing high school students in microbial electrochemical technologies (MET).