Project description
Manufacturing corks that are ecofriendly
Cork has been used for thousands of years as a stopper in wine bottles – from the ancient Egyptians to the ancient Greeks and the Romans. Today, Portugal and Spain are the world’s largest producers of cork wine bottle stoppers. Cork stopper manufacturing, however, produces large volumes of wastewater that contain non-biodegradable organic matter, hydrogen peroxide used as disinfectant, and different dissolved salts. The EU-funded E-CORK project will propose the treatment of the wastewaters with electrochemical advanced oxidation processes. With this approach, the project will revolutionise the cork industry towards a circular economy.
Objective
With 162,000 tons/year, Portugal and Spain have the largest world quota of cork production, being cork stoppers for wine and champagne the “star product”. About 90% of the cork stoppers used worldwide are produced in these two countries. The European Cork Federation established mandatory practices to ensure the quality of the natural stoppers which include several washing, bleaching and disinfection steps. These procedures generate large volumes of wastewaters up to 195,000 m3/year that contain non-biodegradable organic matter, hydrogen peroxide used as disinfectant and different dissolved salts; and constitute a serious risk to environment and human health. The E-CORK project builds on the premise that cork washing wastewaters can be effectively treated by electrochemical advanced oxidation processes. The main goal is to develop an optimized electrochemical treatment line for the depuration and reutilization of cork washing wastewaters taking advantage of the hydrogen peroxide in the main effluent (from by-product to reactant), attending not only to the treatment performance, but also to its technical, economic and environmental feasibility. With this approach and bearing in mind the possibility of reuse the regenerated wastewaters, the E-CORK project aims to revolutionize the cork industry towards a circular economy. The inherent responsibility of Portugal and Spain R&D to promote cleaner and more cost-efficient technologies that safeguard cork production and aquatic environments; the close link with the industrial needs; and the experience of the candidate and supervisor at University of Coimbra, make the perfect conditions to successfully develop this project.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processeswastewater treatment processes
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistryelectrolysis
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
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Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
3004-531 Coimbra
Portugal