Vice-chancellor visited Life-ANSWER
Javier de la Mata, Vice-chancellor for Research and Transfer at the University of Alcalá, and Fernando Cruz-Roldán, director of Technology Transfer, visited last 5 March the pilot plant of the Life-ANSWER project (Advanced Nutrient Solutions With Electrochemical Recovery), in which the Bioe group participates.
During the visit to the facilities of Mahou-San Miguel in Alovera (Guadalajara), the main researcher of the Bioe group, Abraham Esteve Núñez, and the director of Environment of the brewery, Juan Francisco Ciriza, showed the latest advances in this technology proposal. Life-ANSWER is a demonstration project that seeks to validate (technically and economically) an innovative technology that integrates electrocoagulation and microbial electrochemistry as a solution for wastewater treatment of the agrifood industry.
The beer industry generates between 3 and 10 litres of wastewater for each litre of beer produced. The elimination and recovery of nutrients in wastewater, mainly phosphorus, nitrogen and organic matter, is one of the priority objectives set by the European Union through Directive 2000/60/EU, which establishes the basic rules to protect the state of water bodies and increase the quality of rivers, lakes and groundwater.
The objective is to eliminate the pollutant load of wastewater from the brewing process and that this technological alternative is applicable in other Spanish and European agrifood industries, in a bid for long-term sustainable production strategies within the framework of the circular economy. Coordinated by Mahou-San Miguel, the consortium is formed by the Bioe group of the University of Alcalá and the companies Aqualia and Recuperaciones Tolón.
On the other hand, the Royal Botanical Garden Juan Carlos I at University of Alcalá has enabled a space to assess the possibilities of using the residual sludge from this process through three seasonal flower crops with different treatment: 1) contribution of sludge as nutrient, 2) contribution of vegetable mulch and 3) crop without contributions as a control plot.
Life-ANSWER has the financial contribution of the LIFE tool of the European Union that supports environmental projects.