The NETA Project – New Strategies in Wastewater Treatment, presents an innovative opportunity to develop a process that aims at the valorization of wastewater (AR) transforming them into a source of nutrients and water resources, destined essentially to the agrifood sector, with the simultaneous application of new industrial solutions. Thus, from the conversion of AR (urban, livestock and agro-industrial effluents) the project will create three new lines of final products, intended for animal food / nutrition and plant nutrition, but also for the fuel, plastics and pharmaceutical industry.
The NETA Project aims to take both the technology for treating these RA and the chemical precipitation technique (TPQ), patented and currently applied only at the laboratory scale, up to a pre-commercial level (TRL-6) converting, through installation of three pilot units, 3 different ARs in various final products for plant nutrition (sludge and fertilizers) and animal feed / nutrition (compound feed for aquaculture and aquaponic fodder) and which will be tested throughout the project. In parallel, a process of
bioconversion by insects, black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) will also be developed, according to some of the production principles developed under a previous project (EntoValor), which will now be applied in a new treatment context. This process will lead to the production of larvae that, in addition to being used in animal feed, will also be applied in a biorefinery process. The objective will be the development of new products derived from insects, with added value for the sectors of fuels (catalysts and biodiesel), bioplastics (plastic devices and filters) and the pharmaceutical industry (identification of bioactive elements extracted from insects).
Holistically, the objectives of the NETA project will contribute to the closure of nutrient cycles at the farm or agribusiness level, in line with the current concept of Zero Waste and a Circular Economy.