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Photovoltaic solar energy and biomass to 'convert' well water from Campo de Cartagena into water suitable for irrigation of agricultural areas.

It is a project, funded by the European Union, with a budget of more than 1.6 million euros.

It will be carried out by a consortium, led by Regenera Levante, with the participation of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, the Arco Sur Mar Menor Irrigation Community, Hidrogea and Hidrotec. The LIFE-DESIROWS project begins this month and will run until the end of 2023.The groundwater of the field that drains the Mar Menor and the Campo de Cartagena have a high content of nitrates and salts.

Researchers and technicians, through this European circular economy project, will denitrify and desalinate these well waters through an industrial process based on renewable energy sources: biomass and photovoltaic solar energy. This industrial process will allow the reuse of all groundwater.

It will also reduce the arrival of nitrates to the Mar Menor.

The salts will be used to generate other industrial and agricultural uses, say the principal investigators of the UCT research team, Juan García Bermejo and Ángel Molina García.The LIFE-DESIROWS project aims to recycle the brine by first eliminating the nitrates, recovering part of the less soluble salts for later use as fertilizers and allowing the rest of the salts to have an industrial use.

At the same time that the salts are concentrated, up to 98% of the desalinated water is recovered when at present yields below 75% are achieved.

Everything is done using renewable energy obtained by combining photovoltaic solar energy and that generated by biomass.Five research groups from the UPCT participate in this European project (reference LIFE19 ENV / ES / 000447), specialized in electrical engineering, renewable energies, thermal and fluid engineering and water treatment.

The researchers belong to the schools of Industrialists, Agronomists, Roads and Mines.The presentation of the project was chaired by the rector of the UPCT, Beatriz Miguel, and the general director of Water, Sebastián Delgado, and the manager of the company Regenera and coordinator of the project, Francisco Gallego, also participated. 

Source: UPCT