Water, Air & Soil
R&D to enhance the competitiveness of businesses through better management of water, air and soil and associated resources
Experience
Eurecat develops and optimises technologies and processes to improve the management of water, soil and air and associated resources. We conduct research, development and innovation projects with businesses across all industries to enhance economic, environmental and social sustainability.
We use advanced modelling and experimental tools at various scales (laboratory, pilot plant and real scale) to develop and validate new technologies and their applications. We work with a wide range of technologies for treating pollutants to mitigate their release into the natural environment and also for resource recovery and to support the transition to a circular economy.
We design pilot projects and procedures tailored to businesses, thereby reducing the risk inherent to R&D by gradual implementation from conceptualisation to rollout through all development stages.
Our Water, Air and Soil Unit’s knowhow coupled with the capabilities of Eurecat’s technology units enables us to deliver solutions for complex and specific problems across a wide range of sectors including water treatment, chemicals, food and agriculture, pharmaceuticals and materials processing and capital equipment.
Water
Developing and optimising innovative technology and processes for optimising water management and associated resources.
Advanced separation, biological treatment, advanced oxidation, electrochemical and disinfection processes for liquid effluent treatment.
Identifying and evaluating opportunities for efficiency improvement and circular economy implementation.
Developing processes for eliminating trace and/or recalcitrant compounds and treating complex effluents (salinity, organic matter, etc.).
Identifying and developing processes for cascade recirculation and reuse in industrial processes.
Recovering water and liquid effluent resources (nutrients, energy, raw materials).
Tools for monitoring, prediction and quality assurance in distribution networks.
Soil and groundwater
Studies, modelling and simulation of the behaviour and mobility of pollutants in soil and groundwater.
Developing and optimising technologies for in-situ and ex-situ treatment of soil and groundwater.
Processes for bioremediation, nanoparticles, monitored natural attenuation, permeable reactive barriers, chemical oxidation, stripping, etc.
Recovery of waste/by-products to improve the physicochemical properties of soil.
Air and emissions
Air pollution sampling and monitoring in urban, industrial and natural environments.
Modelling and simulating pollutant dispersion in air for pollution prediction.
Developing and optimising technology and processes for treating industrial emissions.
Systems for monitoring and optimising indoor air quality.
Recovering and recycling value-added gases and volatile compounds.
Developing technology for capturing CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
Risk analysis
Chemical and microbiological risk analysis for human health and ecosystems.
Determining maximum and reference pollutant concentrations in the environment based on risk criteria.
Pollutant bioaccessibility studies.
Industrial risk analysis: Evaluation of Safety Reports (SR), Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA), identifying initiators, modelling accidents, calculating consequences, etc.
Simulation and modelling
Extensive simulation and modelling capabilities for treatment processes.
Thermodynamic solution modelling: OLI, PHREEQC.
Computational fluid dynamics: Openfoam, Fluent, CFX.
Developing proprietary models with generic platforms and languages: Matlab, R, Python, etc.
Services
Scientific and technological assessment
Analysing and identifying opportunities for improving the management of water, soil and air and associated resources in industrial processes.
Technological scouting and benchmarking.
In-house analysis laboratory for characterising physical, chemical and biological parameters.
Pilot evaluation
Evaluating and optimising separation, biological, advanced oxidation, electrochemical, disinfection and other technologies.
Test bench trials to define and optimise new technologies and processes.
Onsite trials under real conditions by means of tailor-made pilots for technical and financial evaluation.
Developing new technologies and processes
Developing innovative technologies and products in the urban, domestic and industrial fields.
Coupling technologies to develop hybrid processes and systems.
Cleantech for industrial processes: food, chemical, pharmaceutical, etc.
Outstanding projects
NextGen
Evaluating and promoting circular economy solutions and systems to transform the European water sector.
Ultimate
Building synergies between industry and water services to promote efficient management of resources and value products through the circular economy concept.
RIBAS
Developing a new decontamination technology for soils highly contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals.
Soil Take Care
Methods and techniques for managing and decontaminating degraded industrial sites.
Multimedia
Demoware
Releach
NextGen
Insitrate
Most representative sectors
Water, Air & Soil team
Xavier Martínez Lladó
Director of Water, Air & Soil Unit
Doctor of Science from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and Chemical Engineering degree from the same university. He has more than 15 years’ experience in coordinating and implementing environmental R&D projects in a wide range of urban and industrial sectors.
News
Metals and minerals from seawater desalination plants are recovered to be turned into raw materials
The Eurecat technology centre is coordinating the European Sea4Value project which is to develop a new process for recovering high-value metals and minerals from effluent generated by seawater desalination plants. The idea is to turn them into a source of raw materials in line with the circular economy. The almost [...]
Pilot project shows petrochemical industry wastewater can be reclaimed
The Eurecat technology centre is coordinating the European LIFE REWATCH project which is demonstrating on a pilot scale a new system for treating wastewater from the petrochemical industry in one of DOW Chemical Ibérica’s production plants in Tarragona. The system makes it possible to obtain high-quality reclaimed water which can [...]
Purification system promoting biogas as an alternative energy source to be developed
The Eurecat technology centre is taking part in the LIFE BIOGASNET project that will develop a technology to improve the quality of the biogas produced in waste treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the energy cycle and promote the circular economy. “Increasing the number and [...]
