The BETA Technological Centre produces a guide to promote water reuse in the meat industry

In response to the desire to move towards a circular economy model with a substantial reduction of their water footprint, both livestock farms and the meat sector itself are starting to take up the challenge of recovering and reusing water in their production processes. So BETA Technological Centre at the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) has produced an advisory guide to demonstrate the technical feasibility of using different advanced treatment technologies to produce high-quality reclaimed water. This guide is based on the results and conclusions gleaned from the research projects developed by centre with companies in the sector. 

Advanced technologies to treat effluent from the agri-food industry and pig livestock manure make it possible to obtain reusable water at a quality comparable to the current regulations on the reuse of regenerated water. 
Membrane technologies, such as reverse osmosis, are highly efficient at recovering water, whether the source is effluent, the liquid fraction of slurry, digestate or slaughterhouse wastewater. They ensure the water is of the quality required for industrial, livestock and agricultural uses. This technology is based on filtering the effluent to be treated with membranes that act as a filter, allowing some components to pass through, while others are retained. 

Disinfection processes are very effective at eliminating pathogens in residual effluent from cattle manure and slaughterhouses. This ensures microbiological safety when regenerated water is reused. The aim of these processes is to eliminate microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria and fungi, which have not been eliminated by the conventional processes used in wastewater treatment plants. Disinfection processes using ozone and UV radiation are the most common strategies to sanitise liquid effluent from the livestock and agri-industrial sector. 

It is recommended to design wastewater treatment plants for new meat industry facilities with advanced technologies. Membrane bioreactors could be installed to separate solids from water, with filtration membranes, to obtain high-quality water. In existing facilities, membrane-based post-treatment systems are preferable, since these reduce suspended solids, turbidity and pathogens in single stage, and achieve the water quality standards required by the current regulations. On pig farms, proper selection of pretreatments is essential to guarantee the efficiency of the advanced technologies implemented to enable water to be recovered from livestock manure. 

The guide is expected to be useful in moving towards a regulatory change that promotes the use of water recovered from treating livestock manure and wastewater from the meat industry. It seeks to show that advanced treatment technologies can achieve water quality comparable to that required for the reuse of treated water from non-urban sources. Reusing reclaimed water is an opportunity to reduce dependence on traditional water resources by reserving them for uses that require drinking water. In view of the current drought that began four years ago, this would be one way to find alternative water resources.  

The production of this guide was funded by Technology Transfer Operation 01.02.01 in the Rural Development Programme of Catalonia 2014-2020.

The BETA Technological Centre at UVic-UCC: a European benchmark for sustainability  

The BETA Technological Centre (CT BETA) was set up at the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) in 2014 to boost research into environmental technologies and the circular bioeconomy. In its almost ten years of history, it has become a major player in technological development, enhancing competitiveness, and the quality of life of rural societies, with particular focus on the agri-food sector.  

CT BETA has also become a pioneer in the integration of environmental, economic and social sustainability in industrial sectors. It has developed the ability to lobby the public administration at all levels to support the development of new evidence-based environmental policies.