Project Progress - Life Vertalim

Project Progress

The project has made progress in achieving the following objectives:

During the first part of the project, all partners of the project worked hard to get INVOLVED to all parties to the problem: Fish canning companies, water management entities, administrations to reach an integral solution allowing to jointly the sustainable management of a limited resource as is water. In this way, the enthusiastic participation of each part in solving the problem has been achieved in a sustainable manner for all parties.
It has been PROVIDED of low-cost solutions to minimize the quantity and pollution of wastewater produced in the canneries through the application of eco-efficient production methodology with the help of AZTI. For this, at the beginning of the project environmental indicators have been chosen and measured at the initial situation for the four canning companies: Conservas MARMAR, Conservas AGUIRREOA, HEISA and Conservas GÜENAGA. After which, the improvement measures that lead to savings in water consumption and the minimization of discharges have been detected. The companies have implemented an important part of the measures they have selected and based on them it has been possible to track the production of each cannery. This has allowed the validation of the system 3 barriers. An average improvement between 5-60% in water consumption and a reduction between 30-95% in the parameters of wastewater contamination (COD, SS, A & G, salinity) has been observed.
CABB has supported the 4 tuna canning companies, project partners, with advice for the design and sizing of wastewater pre-treatment plants before discharge into the collector to minimize pollution loads (organic and saline). Pretreatments have already been installed in AGUIRREGOA, MARMAR and HEISA. Work is being done on the design to improve the current GÜENAGA treatment.
CABB has practically completed the implementation of the telecontrol system with the adquisition of instrumentation through a public bidding that began at the end of 2017 with the corresponding approval of the file on 12/12/2017. Tender No. 2234 was published by the CABB under the name “Installation of instrumentation, associated with the project LIFEVERTALIM LIFE15 ENV / ES / 000373, IN THE SANITATION SYSTEM OF ONDARROA WWTP on 03/01/2018 and the works were adjudicated Tendered to the company Dinalan on 05/07/2018, it is expected to be completed by November 2018.
To carry out the calibration of the model, the historical data since 2016 that CABB has provided to CEIT-IK4 has been used. In order to be able to develop a model that includes the incorporation of canning industries discharges and saline infiltration phenomena, the data from the experimental campaign have been analyzed and incorporated into the virtual simulation platform. With this data and those corresponding to the analytics and to the SCADA (year 2017-2018,) the calibration of virtual platform has been carried out, taking into account flows and quality parameters. In the next months, for the design of control strategies, the behavior of the system will be analyzed in virtual platform to analyze the effect in different scenarios
CEIT and CABB have started with the definition and planning of the scope and parameters for the DEMONSTRATION PROOF of the integrated wastewater management system in the sewage system of the Artibai river basin.
CABB and AZTI continue to analyze and collect environmental data at the level of the canning companies, sanitation network and environment. At the same time, new economic data related to the actions carried out during this period have been compiled to evaluate the economic impact of the project (real costs of the modifications of the canning industries, measuring devices, etc.)
The impact of the realization of the project in the local area has been evaluated through a survey at street level to get the citizen’s perception of the different actions carried out during the first year.
Finally, CABB, Ceit and AZTI continue with the Integration plan of the different EU stakeholders from the two selected areas: the Douro River (Portugal) and Sicily (Italy), as well as meetings with the Basque Country (Artibai and Urdaibai areas) as well as in Cantabria.