AREFLH has a partner on the WASTE4SOIL project “Turning food waste into sustainable soil improvers for better soil health and improved food system”. It aims at developing applicable recycling technical pathways to transform Food Processing Residues (FPR) into improvers, through a circular, system, and multi-actor approach. All food chain actors are involved at the regional level, thereby closing specific loops (nutrients, organic matter, water).
The project is setting up 7 Living Labs in Europe. A Living Lab is a new approach to innovation in which users become key players in their real-life environments. The Catalan Living Lab has developed a biogas production process to treat local agricultural residues such as beer bagasse, wine vinasse, alperujo (olive oil by-product) and pig manure.
Researches use anaerobic digestion (AD) combined with a bioelectrochemical system (BES), this process converts organic waste into biogas and nutrient-rich digestate, which will be used for ammonium sulfate extraction as a soil improver.
To scale the process from laboratory to industry, a 530 L AD-BES pilot was built, featuring a 500 L insulated steel AD reactor and a 30 L BES reactor. A 400 L decantation tank is integrated to separate the digestate’s liquid fraction for ammonium sulfate extraction. The system processes 120 L of waste weekly, maintaining optimal anaerobic conditions at 35°C while monitoring biogas production.
Construction was completed in August 2024, followed by a nine-week stabilization phase using beer bagasse and pig slurry. Testing with seasonal residues began in October 2024, and the pilot is now fully operational. Future phases will include residues from the olive oil and wine industries, prominent in Catalonia, to further explore biogas production and soil improver applications.
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This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement Nr. 101112708.