On Tuesday, 22 March, coinciding with World Water Day, the LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 project was presented during the final of the Agritech Startup Europe Accelerathon, awards promoted by the Finnova Foundation. The winner was ALGALI-TIC, a project based on algae cultivation to prevent episodes of eutrophication in rivers and river mouths through a blue and circular economy model thanks to its innovative contribution to the agri-food sector. The project, developed by the startups Mediterranean Algae and G2G Algae Solutions, received the first prize for its innovative contribution to the agri-food sector and will be eligible for European funding through an acceleration ticket to boost its initiative. 

In this line, the European project on the reuse of putrescible organic waste in water treatment plants to obtain biogas, LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0, occupied a prominent place in the conference thanks to its contribution to the agri-food sector. 

LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0 presents a digital automatic control system for the dosing of organic waste in anaerobic digesters of WWTPs (Water Treatment Plants) to maximise the production of biogas on-demand as renewable energy. Thanks to the circular economy and the maximum optimisation of organic waste, it is possible to generate clean green energy through innovative technologies. Thanks to this technology, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the exploitation of sewage sludge generated in wastewater treatment processes are favoured, thus achieving a positive impact on the environment.

The pilot project, financed by the LIFE Programme, has a duration of four years (2020-2024) and is led by Global Omnium Medioambiente (Spain) with the Finnovaregio Foundation (Belgium) and Águas do Centro Litoral (Portugal) as partners.