iMETland celebrates its Final Conference in Brussels

We celebrated our Final Conference on last Friday 14th December at the Spanish Embassy in Brussels. Policy makers, stakeholders and European professionals working in the wastewater treatment field joined the meeting, which was organised in the context of the Startup Olé event, aimed to promote start-ups in the EU from Spanish and Belgian entrepreneurs.

 

Carmen Mena Abela, Head of Sector H2020 Eco-Innovation at The Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), welcomed the attendees and congratulated the consortium for the work done and the innovation and competitiveness of the technology.

 

Project coordinator Abraham Esteve-Núñez, together with researchers Arantxa Aguirre-Sierra (IMDEA), Carlos Arias (Aahus University) and Carlos Aragón (CENTA) explained the results of this environmentally friendly way to purify wastewater and its implementation in small communities. The combination of electroactive bacteria with innovative electroconductive material leads to outperformance of classical biofilters, resulting in 10-fold higher depuration rates than classical techniques. Esteve-Núñez explained both the natural side and the smart and innovative side of the iMETland technology that “enhances the interconnectivity of bacteria to purify wastewater. It is a very simple, but innovative method”.

 

Santiago Otero from PWC Spain showed the key characteristics of iMETland that makes the project “an attractive waste water technology with great commercial potential”: high sustainability impacts in terms of CO2 reduction and water savings, user friendly and a very simple but innovative technology and cost-efficient.

 

Finally, during the event, youris.com premiered the final video that summarizes the achievements of the project: “This is our story and our  contribution for a water-wiser society”. The video can be watch here.

 

 

Life beyond the project

 

After the successful outcome, iMETland results will go beyond the project life. As announced during the meeting in Brussels, the spin-off company METfilter will participate on the recently funded European Project Horizon 2020 ELECTRA (Electricity driven Low Energy and Chemical input Technology foR Accelerated bioremediation). This recently approved 4-year project involves the participation of 17 universities, research centres and companies in the EU and China. The project aims at improving bioremediation of ground waters, wastewater as well as sediments and soil, using innovative approaches based on bioelectrochemical technologies, potentially having a low energy and contamination impacts on site.