REGENERA presents the LIFE DESIROWS project

The event took place on September 24 at the Rectorate of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena.

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.

Use photovoltaic solar energy and biomass to convert the well waters of Campo de Cartagena into water suitable for irrigation of agricultural areas is the objective of the Life-Desirows 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 initiative begins this month and will run until the end of 2023.

And it is that the groundwater of the field that drains the Mar Menor and the Campo de Cartagena have a high content of nitrates and salts, according to sources from the UPCT in a statement. 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. What’s more reduce the arrival of nitrates to the Mar Menor . The salts will be used to generate other industrial and agricultural uses, point out the main researchers of the UCT research team, Juan García Bermejo and Ángel Molina García.

The Life-Desirows project aims to recycle the brine by first eliminating nitrates, recovering part of the less soluble salts for later use as fertilizers and allowing the rest of the salts to have industrial use.

At the same time that the salts are concentrated, up to 98% of the desalinated water is recovered when at present yields of less than 75% are achieved. Everything is done by renewable energy obtained by combining photovoltaic solar energy and that generated by biomass.

Five research groups from the UPCT participate in this European project, specialized in electrical engineering, renewable energy, thermal and fluid engineering, and water treatment. The researchers belong to the schools of Industrialists, Agronomists, Roads and Mines.