Conference for the new technologies for integrated waste recovery
With great success the event “New technologies for integrated waste recovery and water reuse” organized by TEDRA and the Laboratory of Natural Resources and Renewable Energy (NRRE) of the Chemical Process & Energy Resources Institute (CPERI), of the Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), under the auspices of the Central Macedonia Region, at the CERTH Conference Center on Tuesday, March 27th 2018. The event was attended significant number of interested parties on the topic, including representatives of Local Authorities, many industries and other businesses active in the production and processing of agricultural products as well as researchers, academics and other special scientists and technicians.
The event, coordinated by Chemical Engineer Dr. Konstantinos Plakas, a collaborator of NRRE, began with the greetings of Mr. Ioannis Tolios, Chairman & CEO of TEDRA Group, Konstantinos Pallas, Vice – Governor of Central Macedonia Region, Angelos Lappas, Deputy Director CPERI/CERTH and Anastasios Karabelas, Laboratory Director of CPERI. Every one of them highlighted the need of the event to inform all interested parties about the developments and benefits of implementing innovative technologies for the utilization of agro – industrial waste. First, Chemical Engineer Dr. Sotiris Patsios, a collaborating NRRE researcher, referred to the need to promote “Circular Economy” technologies and processes in the management of all types of agro – industrial waste and byproducts, while also presenting indicative research efforts by NRRE in the framework of the relevant research project “AGROCYCLE – Sustainable techno- economic solutions for the agricultural value chain” and “ΑΝΑΘΡΕΨΗ (ANATHREPSI) – Nutrients recovery from the anaerobic digestion of permeate from the food industry through innovative membrane technologies”.
Following, Mr. Pantelis Gliaos, Environmental Department Director of TEDRA, briefly presented TEDRA Group and pointed out the Group’s available technologies along with indicative projects in the field of environmental protection and waste and wastewater management. Subsequently, Ms. Jorien van Geest, Sales Manager of the Dutch company BIOTHANE, a member of Veolia Group, referred to BIOTHANE’s technical works around the world on the basis of the anaerobic treatment of high polluting agro – industrial wastewater from cheese/milk processing, fruit processing and wine production plants. Last but not least, Mr. Efthimios Ferekidis, Project Design Manager at TEDRA, described a standard anaerobic dairy wastewater treatment plant, based on the Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR) technology. This plant will be constructed at the premises of “Bizios S.A.”, a dairy industry at Elassona, and will be the first plant in Greece that uses this innovative technology.
The event was completed with questions from the participants and discussion on the issues of the agro – industrial wastewater treatment, related business opportunities, available technologies and the necessary steps of all the involved parties (state, local government, entrepreneurs producers, research and academics) to promote the concept of Circular Economy, as well as the treatment of agro – industrial wastewater and byproducts -not as waste for disposal but as recoverable materials for the recovery of marketableproducts, bioenergy and water for reuse, with parallel environmental protection.