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SMART-Plant @ SWIM-H2020 SM Study Tour

SMART-Plant was presented at the “Study Tour: Visit to State-of-the-Art Sludge Management Systems and Peer to Peer Exchange for Stakeholders from the South Mediterranean Countries” under the SWIM-H2020 SM Project.

A Study Tour to the island of Psytallia, off the port of Piraeus, where fully operational state-of-the-art sludge management facilities covering the Athens Metropolitan Area are situated, was organized by the EU funded SWIM and Horizon 2020 Support Mechanism with the support of the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP) on 25-27 June 2018.

The Project gave the unique opportunity to 25 trainees to visit this state-of-the-art Waste Water Treatment Plant which is the biggest in the Mediterranean, and one of the few facilities worldwide producing alternative fuel from sludge.

The stakeholders were mostly government officials and managers dealing with sludge, but also representatives of local authorities, the private sector and civil society, from the Project’s Partner Countries: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia.

This 3-day activity addressed issues related to the sustainable management of sludge sewage treatment plants of major cities and addressed the EU standards and different types of best practices. Although the emphasis was on producing alternative fuels from sludge, other less expensive methods were examined as well. Experts of SWIM-H2020 SM and the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP S.A.) also presented to the trainees the elements of a pilot system for reclamation of nutrients from sludge (EU-funded project “SMART-Plant”), touching also upon the role of communication with the stakeholders involved.

A peer-to-peer process for experience sharing and knowledge transfer around sustainable sludge management was initiated among the peers of the different countries, establishing the basis for the development of synergetic activities and cooperation.

In this event, three representatives from two SMART-Plant partners participated as trainers/speakers. Prof. Simos Malamis (Assistant Professor at the NTUA), Dr. Efthymios Lytras (Deputy Director of Environment and R&D Dept., EYDAP) and Dr. Stelios Samios (Head of R&D Department, EYDAP) presented SMART-Plant through their oral presentations.

For more information and the agenda of the event see the pdf or follow the link here.

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SMART-Plant scales-up in real environment eco-innovative and energy-efficient solutions to renovate existing wastewater treatment plants and close the circular value chain by applying low-carbon techniques to recover materials that are otherwise lost.

Seven plus two (7+2) pilot systems were optimized for more than two years in real environment in five municipal water treatment plants, including also two post-processing facilities. The systems were automatized with the aim of optimizing wastewater treatment, resource recovery, energy-efficiency and reduction of greenhouse emissions. A comprehensive SMART portfolio comprising biopolymers, cellulose, fertilizers and intermediates were recovered and processed up to the final commercializable end-products.

Dynamic modeling and superstructure framework for decision support was developed and validated to identify the optimum SMART-Plant system integration options for recovered resources and technologies.

The integration of resource recovery assets to system wide asset management programs were evaluated in each site following the resource recovery paradigm for the wastewater treatment plant of the future, enabled through SMART-Plant solutions. The project proved the feasibility of circular management of urban wastewater and environmental sustainability of the systems, through Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing approaches as well as the global benefit of the scaled-up water solutions.

Global market deployment was achieved as right fit solution for water utilities and relevant industrial stakeholders, considering the strategic implications of the resource recovery paradigm in case of both public and private water management. New public-private partnership models were also explored connecting the water sector to the chemical industry and its downstream segments such as the construction and agricultural sector, thus generating new opportunities for funding and potential public-private competition.