He LIFE MERLIN project is part of the LIFE program and wants to contribute to achieving the goal Making Europe more sustainable and energy independent. It is co-financed by the European Commission and coordinated by Cetaqua-Water Technology Center in collaboration with four other Spanish partners.
Climate change and environmental degradationand the dependence of the European Union (EU) on energy imports from non-EU countries pose a major challenge for the EU, and therefore it is necessary to look for more sustainable alternative energy sources of community origin. The project is being launched for this purpose LIFE MERLIN (Maximization of Biogas Production with Advanced Technologies for Greater Resource Availability and Digital Tools for Increased Efficiency), which will develop an innovative and efficient solution to boost biogas production from wastewater treatment plants.
The project, part of the LIFE program and co-financed by the European Commission, will… pretreatment of sludge from municipal wastewater with an anaerobic co-fermentation process – i.e. a fermentation process of two or more raw materials – of waste from food companies. The pilots, located in the Monte Orgegia (Alicante) and Murcia Este (Murcia) treatment plants, will maximize the production of biogas that can later be used as an energy source for the operation of the facilities themselves.
In this way, the technology LIFE MERLIN will enable the promotion of the circular economy and furthermore, minimize the use of fossil energy sources and therefore reduce greenhouse gas emissions thanks to the use of waste. This technology will also contribute to reducing energy imports from non-EU countries.
LIFE MERLIN project: 4 years of work
LIFE MERLINled by Cetaqua – Water Technology Center, also has the participation of Createch 360º, Aquambiente Circular Economy Solutions -ACES-, Aguas de Alicante and EMUASA-Aguas de Murcia, and has a term of four years.
In the context of the first project meeting held last week in Barcelona, Marcel Vilaplana, project manager at Cetaqua and project coordinator LIFE MERLINstated that “LIFE MERLIN will contribute significantly to the achievement of the objectives of the European renewable energy directive (2018/2001/EU), which finds that 42.5% of energy produced in Europe will be renewable in 2030.”
In this sense, he emphasized that, in addition to his contribution to the production of biomethane in the treatment plants of Monte Orgegia and Murcia Estethe solution that will be developed in the context of LIFE MERLIN It will be repeated over a period of five years in six other water treatment plants in Palencia, León and Sant Feliu de Llobregat, to study its subsequent large-scale replication.
Wastewater contains elements that can be recovered and used to generate different types of biofuels, such as biomethane in this case. Its use is therefore crucial for the application of the circular economy on which the European Union focuses.