HYDROREUSE - Treatment and reuse of agro-industrial wastewaters using an innovative hydroponic system with tomato plants

Agro-industrial wastewaters constitute a complex problem from an environmental and public health point of view due to their contents in organic matter, suspended solids, oils and fats, salts, nutrients, etc. Thus, these effluents when discharged into the receiving resources without any kind of treatment or recovery can cause eutrophication and oxygen rapid consumption, requiring efficient and economically attractive management mechanisms. Biological processes are the most commonly used conventional treatments. However, these processes have numerous drawbacks with respect to the stability of reactor operation. On the other hand, these effluents can be sources of water, nutrients and organic matter for agricultural reuse. Thus, the HYDROREUSE project intends to study the physicochemical properties and evaluate the environmental risk of agroindustrial wastewaters with great impact. In addition, the HYDROREUSE project aims to study innovative pretreatments for the partial reduction of the contamination level of agroindustrial wastewaters with the objective of producing nutritive solutions for agricultural reuse. The HYDROREUSE project also aims to develop an innovative hydroponic system with tomato plants for the treatment and reuse of pretreated wastewaters. In the hydroponic system, we intend to study the optimal operating conditions and monitor the elimination efficiency of organic matter and nutrients. Despite the high removal efficiency of this biological system, hydroponic effluents may require a post-treatment for discharge into the receiving medium. In this sense, hydroponic effluents will be treated by different oxidation processes. The project is based on green, circular, blue and zero waste economy, as it reuses wastewaters as nutritive solutions in hydroponics, minimizing the exploiting costs of this technology.