REWAGEN project has just released its project video! It briefly presents the pilot plant developed to enhance a more efficient water treatment plant for the dairy industry.
The aim of the project is the development of a water treatment system prototype – based on the sequential combination of three technologies: electrocoagulation (EC), electro oxidation (EO), and a technology for the recovery of generated hydrogen for energy saving and the reutilization of the resulting regenerated water for different applications – to be more efficient in terms of wastewater treatment and self-sustaining in terms of energy needs.
The idea is to create a wastewater treatment system aimed at closing the water cycle by integrating energy and water management. The electricity generated through hydrogen conversion is used to keep the system running, and the extracted residues from the wastewater treatment are reused inside the food and dairy production process to cover different needs. Therefore, the project would develop a system with technologies that have not yet been combined with hydrogen recovery. The hydrogen generation from EC or EO systems for electricity production, which would completely feed the wastewater system, has not yet been achieved.
A lot of research is still needed for the generation of hydrogen from these two water treatment technologies. It can be considered a strength that such electrochemical and hydrogen valorization technologies have not yet been jointly considered. As far as we are concerned, there is no previous work focused on the recovery of generated hydrogen from EC or EO systems for electricity production, neither in bench-scale nor in real-life applications. Indeed, the scientific literature does not show any studies considering the conversion of this electrochemically generated hydrogen into energy.
