VACON

• Grant agreement ID: 2019 LLAV 00013

• Total project budget: 20.000,00 €

• Start Date: 23/07/2020

  End Date: 22/04/2021

Project Summary: 

The uncontrolled application of pig slurry, which normally have high-nutrient concentration (N and P), has generated serious groundwater pollution by nitrates. High moisture content (95-98%) of these wastes negatively affects any strategy for direct application in the surroundings areas, as well as, any plan to export them to other regions with low-nutrient soils. In that sense, different management strategies and treatment technologies have been developed and tested during the last years to optimise the concentration and exportation of livestock wastes. However, there is still not a solution that satisfies environmental, economic and market needs.  

Freeze concentration (FC) is a method of removing water from solution through the formation and separation of ice crystals of high purity. The ice crystals are composed mainly of pure water, leaving the solutes (nutrients) in the remaining liquid phase. Vast amount of mass and volume can be reduced by concentrating a solution giving advantatge in terms of transportation and handling. Freeze concentration has been tested as a recovery technique in different fields such as dairy processing, mining or food industry. However, the feasibility of FC for the livestock waste has not yet been investigated.  

Therefore, VACON project aims to provide a real solution to the above-mentioned slurry management problem, assessing the efficiency of FC to valorise the livestock waste and to obtain nutrient concentrates with high fertiliser value as well as reclaimed water 

Our role in the project: 

In the framework of VACON project, BETA Technological Center will be the main responsible for evaluating freeze concentration technology for the valorisation of pig slurry through the operation of a laboratory-scale pilot plant. In addition, BETA Technological Center will carry out the optimisation of the freeze concentration process to maximise the recovery of clean water through the innovative treatment. 

Project funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)