FCC Medio Ambiente
Environmental Services, Water Management and Infrastructures
Environmental Services, Water Management and Infrastructures
The FCC Group, a world leader in Environmental Services, Water Management and Infrastructures, has been delivering Services to Cities for more than 115 years and is present in over 30 countries, with 59,000 people and 6 billion euro turnover.
What they do
FCC Medio Ambiente provides environmental services to 60 million people in more than 5,000 municipalities. From waste management and recycling to every municipal service, it processes annually 23.5 million tonnes of waste as a resource at nearly 200 sustainable facilities, recovering 3.2 million tonnes of recyclables and 360 MW of non-fossil power. Innovation is in the DNA of FCC Medio Ambiente, committed to reaching the UN’s Agenda 2030 SDG by means of developing e-mobility and boosting the society to transform towards a Circular Economy model.
Apart from DEEP PURPLE FCC Medio Ambiente participates in other 10 circular economy and bioeconomy innovation projects
FCC Medio Ambiente coordinates:
· LIFE PLASMIX (LIFE18 ENV/ES/000045: Plastic mix recovery and pp PP & PS recycling from municipal solid waste)
· LIFE 4FILM (LIFE17 ENV/ES/000229: Post consumption film plastic recycling from municipal solid waste)
· LIFE LANDFILL BIOFUEL (LIFE18 ENV/ES/000256: Integral management of the biogas from landfills for use as vehicle fuel)
· INSECTUM (CIEN CDTI:IDI-20181075 Biowaste valorization by means of its conversion with insects into new high value added by-products for strategic sectors)
· VALOMASK (Design and development of a sustainable management process for discarded masks)
FCC Medio Ambiente participates:
· H2020 SCALIBUR (H2020 GA817788: Scalable technologies for bio-urban waste recovery)
· LIFE METHAmorphosis (LIFE 14/CCM/ES/000865: Waste streams treatment for obtaining safe reclaimed water and biomethane for transport sector to mitigate GHG emissions)
· BBI B-FERST (BBI: GA837583 Bio-based fertilising products as the best practice for agricultural management sustainability)
· ECLOSION (MISIONES MIG-20211071 New materials, technologies and processes for the generation, storage, transport and integration of renewable hydrogen and biomethane from biowaste)
Role in project
FCC is responsible for the design and operation of the thermal hydrolysis process for the OFMSW.
The organic fraction of the municipal solid waste will be separated at the municipal solid waste treatment plant by means of a mechanical pre-treatment process in order to obtain a clean a fraction of organic material with less than 10 mm size. This fraction of OFMSW will be treated by means of thermal hydrolysis with steam explosion process in order to solubilize the content of organic matter and nutrients. Thermal hydrolysis releases to the liquid much of the content in C and nutrients of the residue. Demo-scale thermal hydrolysis is going to be optimized to maximize the release of the organic matter, minimize the release of nutrients into the liquid fraction (controlling complete proteins decomposition), and the costs of the processes. Steam explosion will be used as the main driver to rapidly decompose the biomass.
The operating conditions of the thermal hydrolysis by steam explosion will be analysed in order to optimize the industrial process, maximizing organic matter and minimizing nutrients (i.e. N, P, K and Mg) releases to the liquid stream and minimizing energy consumption.