Rewagen

Objective

The aim of the project is the development of a prototype of a water treatment system – based on the sequential combination of three technologies: electrocoagulation, electro oxidation and a technology for the recovery of the generated hydrogen for energy saving and the reutilisation of the resulting regenerated water for different applications – more efficient in terms of wastewater treatment and self-sustaining in terms of energy needs.

Project Scope

The idea is to develop a wastewater treatment system aiming at closing the water cycle, by integrating energy and water management, where the electricity generated through the hydrogen conversion is used to keep the system working and the extracted residues from the waste water treatment are reused inside the food and dairy production that have still not been jointly developed together with hydrogen recovery. The hydrogen generation from electrocoagulation and electro oxidation systems for electricity production to be completely used to feed the wastewater system has not yet been developed. Still lot of research is needed for the generation of hydrogen from these two water treatment technologies. It can be stated as strength that such kind of electrochemical and hydrogen valorisation technologies have not still been jointly considered. As far as we are concerned there is no previous work focused on the recovery of generated hydrogen from electrocoagulation and electro oxidation systems for electricity production. The project aims to treat dairy effluents composed by wastewater and whey by means of electrochemical processes to:

• Achieve the desired water quality to its reuse

• Recover the hydrogen generated during treatment as a by-product in a secondary power generator feeding the main wastewater treatment technologies

• Reduce and valorise the electro generated sludge