Pilot Sites

FIT4REUSE pilot and experimental sites are up and running.
See their main characteristics below. You can select a specific Work Package, or simply scroll through.

WP2: Nature-based solutions for municipal wastewater treatment

Pilot Site 1

  • Objective

    Improving performance of constructed wetlands to reach quality required for wastewater reuse in agriculture

  • Location

    Granarolo, Italy

  • Configuration

    6 horizontal flow constructed wetlands and 6 vertical flow constructed wetlands, with a possibility to combine them

  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater

  • Flow rate

    Up to 600 L d-1

Pilot Site 2

  • Objective

    Selecting the most suitable substrates, plants species and optimisation of operational conditions in order to reuse wastewater in agriculture

  • Location

    Wastewater treatment plant El Manzah, Tunisia

  • Configuration

    5 vertical flow constructed wetlands, 1 partially saturated vertical flow constructed wetland and 6 horizontal flow constructed wetlands

  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater

  • Flow rate

    13-50 L d-1 per system

Pilot Site 3

  • Objective

    Removing organic carbon ( >80%) with low area footprint and energy recovery

  • Location

    Lesvos, Greece

  • Configuration

    Bio-electrified wetland

  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater

  • Flow rate

    500-1000 L d-1

WP3: Intensive solutions for municipal wastewater treatment

Pilot Site 4

  • Objective

    Producing Class A effluent quality with further removal of emerging contaminants (focus on pharmaceutical) and biogas production

  • Location

    Falconara Marittima, Italy

  • Configuration

    The pilot site consists of five units: primary treatment via dynamic rotary filter, granular biomass anaerobic reactor, anaerobic ultrafiltration in sidestream configuration , optional UV disinfection and a fixed bed molecularly imprinted polymers adsorption column

  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater in a hotspot of seawater intrusion

  • Flow rate

    24-72 L d-1

  • Preliminary results

    • Up to 82% of COD removal
    • 100% of TSS removal
    • Up to 18% of N-NH4 release
    • Up to 55% of P-PO4 release
    • E.Coli effluent < 10 UFC 100mL-1
    • Recovered nutrient-rich water for fertigation purposes

Pilot Site 5

  • Objective

    Removing heavy metals and emerging contaminants from wastewater

  • Location

    Athens, Greece

  • Configuration

    Nano zero valent iron continuous flow system

  • Influent

    Tertiary treated wastewater

  • Flow rate

    26 L d-1

Pilot Site 6

  • Objective

    Improving contaminants removal efficiency, safe wastewater reuse in agriculture, recovering biogas and decreasing energy consumption

  • Location

    Pilot plant of Chotrana, Tunisia

  • Configuration

    Filter, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket digestion

  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater

  • Flow rate

    25-100 L d-1

Pilot Site 7

  • Objective

    Recovering nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater: sorbent material selection and process optimization

  • Location

    Bologna, Italy

  • Configuration

    Microfiltration and adsorption columns

  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater

  • Flow rate

    30 L d-1

WP 4: Water desalination

Pilot Site 8

  • Objective

    Decreasing energy consumption using photovoltaic panels and hybrid configuration, brine management, salts removal from brackish water

  • Location

    Tunis, Tunisia

  • Configuration

    Pretreatment module with activated carbon column, 4” nanofiltration module and 4” reverse osmosis module

  • Influent

    Brackish Water  (6 ; 9 ; 12 g L-1)

  • Flow rate

    24000 L d-1

Pilot Site 9

  • Objective

    Decreasing energy consumption using different cartridge filters and implementing FRD device

  • Location

    Lahat BWRO Plant, Israel

  • Configuration

    Pilot site has two streams:

    1. Cartridge filter pilot skid: each has 20 “cartridge filter and 4” reverse osmosis membrane
    2. Reverse osmosis pilot plant: 2 stages: 3 PV at 1st stage, 1 PV at 2nd stage, 7-8 reverse osmosis membranes 8” at a PV
  • Influent

    Brackish well water

  • Flow rate

    (1) 120000 L d-1, (2) 648000 L d-1

Pilot Site 10

  • Objective

    Reducing nitrates concentration from 70 to 5 ppm

  • Location

    Ashkelon, Israel

  • Configuration

    Microalgae photo-bio-reactor

  • Influent

    Reverse osmosis brine from brackish water

  • Flow rate

    1000 L d-1

Pilot Site 11

  • Objective

    Reduction of discharge flows towards a zero liquid discharge and selective removal of calcium salts, for optimization of the treatment process, and magnesium for the recovery of struvite.

  • Location

    Ancona, Italy

  • Configuration

    The pilot units for brine treatment is composed of: an evaporation unit with a vacuum system for raw brine distillation, a precipitation tank for the selective separation of calcium and magnesium from raw brine and a forward osmosis unit.

  • Influent

    Raw seawater brine from an Italian desalination plant

  • Flow rate

    48-192 L d-1

  • Preliminary results

    • Mg recovery up to 95% and Ca recovery up to 55% with thermal pre-treatment
    • Recovered Mg and Ca-based salts
    • Recovered Mg-source is dosed for Phosphorus precipitation from wastewater anaerobic effluent to recover struvite or other P-salts

WP5: Integration and modelling of treatment solutions

Pilot Site 12

  • Objective

    Improving treatment efficiencies combining intensive and nature-based solutions to produce effluent suitable for reuse in agriculture

  • Location

    Imola, Italy

  • Configurations

    • Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket digestion, molecularly imprinted polymers , hybrid constructed wetlands, improved aeration, UV
    • Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket digestion, anaerobic membrane bioreactor, adsorption substrate, molecularly imprinted polymers, nano zero valent iron columns, UV
  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater and occasional industrial discharge

  • Flow rate

    2500 L d-1

Pilot Site 13

  • Objective

    Treating wastewater for irrigation reuse

  • Location

    Lahat BWRO Plant, Israel

  • Configuration

    Static filter, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket digestion + constructed wetlands

  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater

  • Flow rate

    50-100 L d-1

Pilot Site 14

  • Objective

    Producing Class B (or better) quality of reclaimed water for agricultural irrigation

  • Location

    Lesvos, Greece

  • Configuration

    Bio-electrified wetland, sand filtration, nano zero valent iron columns, UV disinfection

  • Influent

    Municipal wastewater

  • Flow rate

    1000 L d-1

Simulation Platform

  • Description

    Fit4Reuse simulation platform was designed to simulate simplified models of the Fit4Reuse solutions as a tool mainly for decision making. The simulation platform will be suitable to simulate different scenarios for different cases, applications in different regions with different requirements and obligations. The simulation platform is capable of simulating single units together with the innovative enhancements and also the process trains composed of different units. The simulations will reveal system performance in terms of water quality, energy and carbon footprint.

WP6: Use of non-conventional water resources

Experimental site 1

  • Objective

    Testing the effects of treated wastewater on irrigation drippers clogging, sanitary quality of soil and crops, as well as effect of nutrients present in wastewater on crop growth

  • Location

    Cesena, Italy

  • Influent

    Reclaimed water

  • Crops

    Peach orchards and tomatoes

Experimental site 2

  • Objective

    Answering the questions: 1) What are the benefits of water reuse in terms of fertilization? 2) How to deal with water quality evolution in open storage? and 3) What are the best on-field solutions to limit drippers clogging?

  • Location

    Saint Jean de Cornies, France

  • Influent

    Reclaimed water

  • Crops

    Tomatoes and salad