In Ferrara a project to clean water with waste from the biomedical industry

The experimental project is called Water living lab, signed by Hera, Cnr and Medica on the banks of the Po

PONTELAGOSCURO (Ferrara) – Clean water from micropollutants such as Pfas or other new contaminants and make it drinkable with membranes obtained from biomedical industry waste which would otherwise end up in the incinerator. It is the heart of the experimental project “Water living lab” signed by Hera, Cnr and Medica spa and inaugurated today at the Pontelagoscuro water purification plant in Ferrara, which opens the doors to present the first results with the aim of extending it on a large scale.The experimentation, unique in Italy and based on the concept of recovery and circular economy applied to research, is part of the Life Remembrance project financed by the European Union for an investment of over 2.5 million euros, of which 1.2 million financed by the program European Life.The Pontelagoscuro power plant, which takes water directly from the Po river and makes it drinkable, is the plant managed by the multi-utility in which the new system was installed.

“It is a project that anticipates an experimental and risk mitigation analysis for the abatement of micropollutants which, I would like to point out, here in Ferrara we absolutely have not - the central director of Hera Group Networks, Alessandro Baroncini, immediately began, clarifying the 'laboratory' nature of the project - here we use a matrix of raw water which is taken from the Po, to experiment and sample all the possible polluting matrices that we forcibly insert".A place that is also symbolic because, explains the manager of the multi-utility, "from the Po aquifer system Water is taken from both surface and wells for the Emilian system, but through the Emilia-Romagna Canal and other purification plants it must also be transferred towards Romagna".

The water used by the laboratory is clearly "outside the drinking water circuit, but in any case we are confident that this is an innovative frontier, because it passes through the recovery of materials in an industrial symbiosis between sectors for such a precious asset for humanity".But what are these 'wastes' that are now found to be so precious?“They are membranes that are used for the purification of biological fluids, blood first and foremost, and are therefore used and produced by the biomedical industry like the company I belong to- explains Letizia Bocchi from Medica and representative of the Life project - they are made of a plastic material which in the normal industrial process is usually disposed of by incineration", and which in 2022 alone "a small company like ours disposed of five tons of".However, the experimentationit does not replace the already existing purification phases, but becomes useful when emerging contaminants of greater concern may appear in the future“.For the moment, the greatest attention, continues the expert, "is aimed at Pfas, therefore the so-called forever chemicals, persistent substances of great interest and concern for the impact they have on the environment".

To transform this material into a resource, Medica availed itself of the collaboration of the Cnr of Bologna, "developing the processing conditions of these wastes in such a way as to keep a whole series of properties preserved which are then necessary for the absorption of pollutants", underlines Manuela Melucci, CNR researcher at the Institute of Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity in Bologna and the Cnr.A research phase that led to "a joint patent, several publications and which will continue with validation on a different scale thanks to this system".Also present at the inauguration was the vice president of the Emilia-Romagna Region with responsibility for the Environment Irene Priolo, who during the meeting defined herself as "water councillor", highlighting both the value of this resource and the importance of managing it.“This project works to improve the quality and status of our water.From a chemical point of view, therefore, an important, virtuous project, because it manages to combine, as the circular economy said, because there is the reuse of a waste product with high added value, together with what is the integrated water supply".