SaltGae European Project

Algae to treat saline wastewater

SaltGae is a demostration project to prove the techno-economic feasibility of using algae to treat saline wastewater from the food industry.

SaltGae will develop and demonstrate a techno-economically viable solution for the treatment of saline wastewaters (WWs) from the Food & Beverage industry.

SaltGae

SaltGae will be a case study to overcome the cross-cutting barriers to innovation identified in the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) on Water. SaltGae will provide:

  • A techno-economically viable solution for the treatment of saline wastewaters and establish three DEMO sites for the real scale demonstration of sustainable and eco-innovative modular-based technology platforms. DEMOs will be established in Slovenia (treatment of tannery WW) Italy (whey WW) and Israel (aquaculture WW).
  • An innovative platform for the mobilisation and networking of stakeholders from all the different sectors related to WWs, and for the dissemination of results with the aim of promoting paradigm shift in perception from ‘WW treatment’ to ‘resource valorisation’.

Expected impacts

  • Contribution to the implementation of the EIP Water across several key areas: Water and WWs treatment, Water Reuse and Recycling, Water Energy Nexus, Cross Cutting Challenges.
  • Creation of new market opportunities, based on the valorisation of sludge, effluents and biomass.
  • Resource efficiency and environmental performance.
  • Development and uptake of water efficiency standards and promotion of interoperability between water information systems.
  • Support to the EU Environmental Technology Verification Pilot (ETV) programme.

Consortium overview

The consortium is composed of 20 partners coming from 9 different European and Associated countries (Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium and Israel) with high complementarity able to assure balance between research and commercial phase for each of the technological components of the SaltGae vision:

  • Sludge valorisation: NOVA ID, KOTO, Algen, BiboAqua
  • Effluents valorisation: DCU, iBET, EXTRACTIS, RISE, Arava, BiboAqua, OMS
  • Biomass valorisation: iBET, EXTRACTIS, INSTM, Inspiralia, PMIX
  • HRAP: PTP, Inspiralia, Arava, Algen, Oxidine, Archimede
  • Support Services: ENCO, Inspiralia, EDS, CF+I, EUBIA, RISE

 

 

 

APG Group participated in Vitafoods 2018

Vitafoods is an important annual event where food industries meet to propose innovative products to the market.

The APG Group participated in Vitafoods 2018, which was held in Geneva (CH) on 15-17 May 2018.

The products on show were mainly nutraceutical ingredients and raw materials, food supplements, functional foods and beverages.

The APG Group was present with innovative and traditional products.

Archimede Ricerche and Microphyt brought their offer of microalgae and derived products, while A&A Fratelli Parodi proposed a range of edible vegetable oils and flours.

 

Biofat European Project

Archimede Ricerche Srl and Microalghe Camporosso Srl, through their parent company A&A Fratelli Parodi Spa, are active members of the BIOFAT European Project.

The BIOfuel From Algae Technologies (BIOFAT) project, jointly funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), aims to demonstrate that biofuels produced from microalgae can offer energy efficiency, profitability and environmental sustainability at the same time.

This innovative project brings together ten partners from seven countries to demonstrate that bio-ethanol, bio-diesel and other by-products can be derived from microalgae on a large scale. The ability of microalgae to provide products with high energy yields and low greenhouse gas emissions has long been known, but the downsides associated with developing this field are less clear.

Algo-refinery

BIOFAT aspires to maximise the benefits of microalgae while minimising the environmental impact. Along the way, the project will emphasise the concept of an algo-refinery, an integrated facility capable of supplying high value-added by-products along with bio-fuel.

BIOFAT’s approach integrates complementary technologies and skills, brought in by the project partners, in a multidisciplinary context.

In the course of the project, the bio-fuel production chain from microalgae will be evaluated, with three main objectives:

  • Energy efficiency
  • Economic feasibility
  • Environmental sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the key factor in the production of bio-fuel from microalgae, both in the environmental field (e.g. considering the use of marine strains to limit the use of fresh water) and in the economic field (low energy consumption).

The implementation of the project comprises two distinct phases:

  • Process optimisation in two pilot plants, each of 0.5 hectares, located in Italy (Camporosso) and Portugal.
  • Economic modelling and scale-up, with the construction of a 10 hectare ‘demo’ plant.

The technologies applied in the two pilot plants are fully representative of the solutions that will characterise the demo plant.

Please visit the official BIOFAT project website for more information.