On February 17, 2022, the Water2REturn Demo Workshop took place, an event organized by the Andalusian Public Foundation Center for New Water Technologies (CENTA) together with the collaboration of Bioazul. The event took place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development in Seville, where 40 people attended.
The workshop began with a welcome ceremony by Álvaro Real, General Director of Water Infrastructures of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Andalusia Goverment, where he thanked the attendees for their interest in this type of initiative on circular economy. The session continued with David Fernández, Head of the Circular Economy Planning Office of the General Directorate of Environmental Quality and Climate Change of the Andalusia Goverment, who explained the different aspects of the future circular economy law of Andalusia. After this intervention, it was the turn of Pilar Zapata, project manager at Bioazul and general coordinator of Water2REturn, who made an introduction to the project and presented the main results as well as the work carried out.
After this first part, the attendees and speakers moved to the town of Salteras (Seville). Once there, they visited the Matadero del Sur, where the pilot of the Water2REturn project is located. In these facilities they were received by Antonio Valverde, Mayor of the Salteras City Council, and Isabel Revuelta, manager of Matadero del Sur. After this welcome, the guided tour of the Water2REturn facilities began, led by Alejandro Caballero, Director of water engineering at Bioazul, who explained the process and overall operation of the plant, as well as highlighting the work carried out on his part in the water treatment line. waters.
This guided tour was also joined by Juan Parrado, Professor at the University of Seville, who explained the function of the sludge line after receiving the treated water; and Rosario Solera, Professor at the University of Cádiz, who offered details on the anaerobic digester operation within the energy recovery unit. David Haigh, project manager at Kimitec Group, explained on his behalf the agronomic products obtained from each line.
Thanks to this visit, all the attendees were able to get to know the Water2REturn technology up close. For the project consortium, it was an opportunity to collect the impressions of the public interested in this technology and to know its acceptance in the market.