The agro-food industry is the main manufacturing industry in Europe, representing 14% of the total turnover, more than 836,000 million euros. It is comprised of over 30,000 companies within the European Union, most of them small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with less than 250 workers (99.1% of the total). Most processing operations steps in agro-industry are water-based. Food and drink industry accounts for approximately 1.8% of Europe’s total water use and rank third in water consumption rates between industries (Olmez, 2009).
The absence of wastewater management in the agro-industry can lead to potential ecological ramifications including environmental pollution, water quality deterioration and resource depletion. Primary areas of concern are the levels of biological and chemical oxygen demand (BOD/COD), the dissolved and suspended solids, the excessive nutrient loading in the spent process wastewater. High levels of nutrients from the agro-industry, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, end up in water bodies and increase the risk of eutrophication, which can be explained by the low degree of sophistication of the nutrient removal processes deployed in some waste water treatment plants. Further, agro-industry effluents may contain undesirable pathogen organisms such as enteric bacteria and viruses which can pose risks to human health. The microbial load of wastewaters produced in a vegetable-processing facility comprised hazardous pathogen like Escherichia coli, Enterococci and Salmonella (Gatta, 2015). Another area of concern is the residual amount of pesticides remaining in rinsing water from post- and pre-harvest application of pesticides. Due to the risk resulting from the release of these substances in the environment, authorization of pesticides for post-harvest use is granted under the safety clause that wastewater from fruit washing is effectively collected and treated (EFSA, 2014). The direct environmental discharge of those effluents without prior depuration entails a constant risk for the abiotic and biotic environment.
Water reclaim is a sustainable strategy which can have a huge impact on the industry operations through the reduction of the cost for obtaining of freshwater and the cost for disposal of the end-of-the-pipe wastewater. Additional benefits include the appealing public image of SMEs due to the reduction of the use of natural resources (Safferman, 2008). Within this frame of environmental concerns illustrated above, the PureAgroH2O project is expected to deliver a novel solution on the purification of agro-industrial effluents and the cost-effective reclaim of the treated water.
