LIFE VERTALIM: Methodologies for the Integrated Management of High Polluted Effluents from Food SMEs to Urban Sanitation Systems

Abstract

The main objective of the LIFE VERTALIM project is to demonstrate the efficiency of a holistic solution (including technical, legislative, social and environmental aspects) for the controlled integration of food industry wastewater in urban sanitation system with the compliance of all stakeholders. The artisan production of canned tuna is characterized by generating effluents with high organic and saline loads, which complicates their suitable treatment. This work shows two approaches to solve this problem. To begin, low-cost innovative solutions, through clean and eco-efficient production and wastewater pretreatment for the fish canneries. Then, the implementation of a real time control system (RTC) as a remote management system in the sanitation network that will allow the remote management of the urban and industrial discharges, based on the modeling of the collector network and WWTP in different scenarios.

Strategies for the Controlled Integration of Food SMEs’ Highly Polluted Effluents into Urban Sanitation Systems

“…Under this framework the European project LIFE VERTALIM (http://www.azti.es/vertalim) was born, with the main objective of developing a holistic solution (technical, legislative, social, and environmental) for the controlled integration of the discharges of small food companies into the urban sanitation system. In order to comply with the stated objective, the project is based on four action blocks: (1) the minimization of discharges at source in the canning companies; (2) the implementation of a tele-control system via GRPS (general packet radio service) based on a global system for mobile communications technology in the network of sanitation and industrial discharges for the submission of data to the SCADA (Supervisory Control AND Data Acquisition); (3) the simulation, modeling for the control of discharges, and design of a management tool for the sewer system; and (4) the demonstration of the integral management system of discharges in the sanitation network ( Figure 1) [7]. The tool designed in LIFE VERTALIM aims to guarantee the success of this integration, allowing us to minimize the stressful factors of risk that may affect the quality of the final discharge of the WWTP.…”