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The Catalan Water Research Institute (ICRA-CERCA) presented this Thursday, October 26, 2023, the new treatment prototype of the European project RECYCLing waste water from a small and medium sized laundries with advanced Oxidation process (LIFE RECYCLO ) . The main objective of this project, on which the ICRA-CERCA research team has been working since 2021, is the reuse of laundry water in the system itself, through an integrated water treatment that allows its recirculation, with the consequent savings in water consumption. In this sense, the new technological solution presented is based on an advanced oxidation that allows to improve the quality of the water that can degrade more than 90% of the emerging pollutants present in the water. During the event, not only were project details presented, as well as the first results of the implementation of the prototype, but attendees also had the opportunity to visit the Mas Xirgu Foundation (GRUPFRN) laundry, where the system has been installed. LIFE RECYCLO is coordinated by TREEWATER SAS (France), together with five other partners from France, Luxembourg and Spain, among them ICRA-CERCA (Sara Rodríguez-Mozaz, Gianluigi Buttiglieri, Sara Insa, Diana Álvarez and Marta Turull), with a budget total project of €1.48 million. The new LIFE RECYCLO prototype The LIFE RECYCLO project proposes to treat gray water by also removing chemical micropollutants so that the resulting water can be reused in the same laundries. The treatment technique is based on an advanced oxidation system that uses hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light transforms hydrogen peroxide into highly reactive hydroxyl radicals, which react and degrade chemical pollutants. In addition, UV rays disinfect the water. Another advantage of this process is that it produces little treatment waste and directly degrades organic pollutants, unlike other technologies that only separate or concentrate them. The aim of the RECYCLO solution is to save between 50 and 80% of water, but also to remove 90% of the pollutants that are released from the clothes during washing. After a successful initial experiment at the facilities of the TREEWATER company in France, this patented system continues its development process and has been implemented in the laundry of the Ramon Noguera Foundation Group in Spain (Girona). Visibility day for projects related to water management The day has also served to give visibility to other LIFE projects related to water management, such as LIFE WAT’SAVEREUSE and LIFE BIODAPH2O . These were able to display their posters presenting their own projects. The presentation was attended by the TREEWATER project (a French water treatment technology company), the Mas Xirgu foundation (GRUPFRN) and Pop’Sciences from the University of Lyon.
