CRISTINA YUSTE / EFE
Monday, October 8 2018, 09:18
The investigation in the purification of residual waters advances, and the Region returns to give example. The EU Life program has allowed the development on a small scale of a technology capable of taking advantage of the warm climate of areas such as Murcia for its implantation in other countries of the Mediterranean Arc, Africa or Latin America. The Life Celsius experimental plant, installed by Acciona Agua in the Archena treatment plant, is based on a type of bacteria for the elimination of organic matter and nitrogenous compounds that do not require oxygen and benefit from the mild temperatures in the area. to perform your metabolism.
This translates into significant savings, because these microorganisms can do without aeration (which consumes most of the energy in a conventional treatment plant) and external heat input.
According to María del Mar Micó, director of the project, this technology would allow to save with the combination of both processes up to 60% in the total energy consumption of a treatment plant compared to conventional treatments. All with up to 90% removal of organic matter and nitrogen compounds; «An opportunity» for a company like Acciona Agua, to be able to apply a technology, «which already had worked», to the main line of a real purification plant, says Micó.
Invasive species
In particular, the Celsius plant focused on the elimination of nutrients in two phases, which as a whole yielded a «very robust» result, perfectly applicable to places with a similar climate.
And it is that the stage of elimination of nutrients is, according to this expert, «crucial», because the presence of these pollutants favors the development of opportunistic invasive species that consume the oxygen of the watery masses and damage the development of native fauna and flora.
In this sense, Micó values the wastewater treatment initiatives aimed at preventing these nutrients from reaching the environment, «either by eliminating them definitively or by reusing them as fertilizer in the field, for example.»