The recovery of waste waters is a keystone for the CONSERVAL initiative. Due to the high cost assumed by the canning factories when it comes to water treatment, recovering fluxes and turning them into new income sources is paramount. Hence the presence of the project at the IV International Technical Seminar of Water Management in the Agrifood Industry, hosted by the tecnological centre AINIA, a proper stage for showing the benefits of sustainable processes like those developed in the cross-border network.
Alongside a hundred attendants, CONSERVAL was represented by its partner, Anfaco-Cecopesca. Leticia Regueiro, head for Sustainability and Circular Economy at the Association, revealed techniques for the recovery of waste water, as well as solid and liquid by-products fluxes, and its conversion into high value intermediate products. The presentation created great expectation in a seminar which also faced challenges in the integral management and sustainability of the hydric resources, mainly in the private sector.
As the AINIA itself rekons, the circular economy is a shift in the water management paradigm; in this instance, the innovative approach gives a chance to turn a competitive disadvantadge into diverse high value products, namely specific volatile fatty acids, oils with a high Omega 3 content and protein hydrolysates. In this context, a project such as CONSERVAL is also a valuable example of cooperation between research centres, knowledge transfer entities and end-users.
