Pilot Experiments
BIO BEX-A: REMOTE CONTROL SOLUTION FOR SLUDGE TREATMENT PLANTS BASED ON SENSORS AND APPLICATION PROGRAMS
Spain – Portugal
Smart Islands Hub
Experiment objective
BIO BEX-A is a fully digital and centrally controlled sludge treatment plant based on data analytics. The project called Bio Bex-A has been designed as a sludge treatment service that operates through instrumentation and digital control technology capable of analysing the type of compound to be treated, salinity or pH among other parameters, in order to later use the appropriate pressure and temperature to dehydrate the sludge, having on one hand, the toxic residue, which is eliminated, and on the other hand, clean water.
The main goal is to reduce the contamination caused by the residual sludge obtained in water treatment plants, dehydrating it up to 40% more than other systems in the market and thus, avoid its deposit in natural environments without the appropriate treatment and help to fight against climate change.
Challenges
The aim of Bio Bex-a technology is to end pollution and irregular discharges into natural environments and manage to treat residual sludge in a more efficient and economical way for all the agents involved and thus fight against climate change. As a result, a more sustainable sludge treatment service is offered thanks to its energy self-efficiency, its minimal carbon footprint and expulsion of particles, where all the toxic waste is eliminated and allows the return of the resulting clean water to the natural environment or to even be reused for irrigation.
Implementation Solution
In this experiment we plan to implement a distributed system with a central database in the control center which will be able to gather information from different sludge water treatment stations and different kinds of sensors in each station. We also envision the possibility of the control center sending commands to actuators in the stations in order to change parameters of their functioning. Each station can have a local processing unit to realize some post-processing of raw data which will be sent, through a network, to the control center by a REST API. The activities include: A study to fully define the needs and requirements of the actors involved in the use of the application experiment; A detailed design and development of the whole system: from the election of the appropriate sensors that will be placed in Bio Bex-a plants to the way to connect them to the app, followed by the different modules of the app; and Validation performed both as single modules as well as an integrated system.
Results Obtained
The experiment at VIFEMAR was finally a success. The result was an innovative and fully digital and centrally controlled sludge treatment plant based on data analytics that operates through instrumentation and digital control technology capable of analysing the type of compound to be treated, salinity or pH among other parameters, in order to later use the appropriate pressure and temperature to dehydrate the sludge, having on one hand, the toxic residue, which is eliminated, and on the other hand, clean water. The service is providing VIFEMAR with a powerful tool in order to improve the service to the customer (more information, better results, higher quality). It is a combination of sensors connected to the plant together with the data management tool and the visualisation system.
Impact of the experiment
The impact of the experiment has been medium for the final customer and significant for the technical department at Vifema. We consider the impact to be significant at Vifemar as the main goal of Bio Bex-A technology is to end pollution and irregular discharges into natural environments and manage to treat residual sludge in a more efficient and economical way for all the agents involved and thus fight against climate change. As a result, a more sustainable sludge treatment service is offered thanks to its energy self-efficiency, its minimal carbon footprint and expulsion of particles, where all the toxic waste is eliminated and allows the return of the resulting clean water to the natural environment or to even be reused for irrigation. In addition, this system can always be marketed at a lower price than the current market value, making it very attractive to potential customers.
Dissemination
In December 2021, we had a meeting with the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias (ITC) to tell them about the success of the proposal to the Dih World Open Calls with our project DIGITAL BIOIBEX-A.
In January 2022, we participated in the workshop European R&D&I Grants for SMEs Cascade Funding – Open Calls / II Edition of the ITC. The workshop was part of the FORWARD project which aims to improve the research excellence and innovation potential of its Outermost Regions (OR) in order to strengthen their participation in EU-funded research and innovation projects, and to link research activities with territorial development.
https://www.een-canarias.org/como-convertir-los-residuos-del-cafe-en-algo-util/
