SYMSITES’ main objective is to develop new technologies and stakeholders’ engagement methodologies to prove the concept of regional Industrial-Urban Symbiosis (I-US) in four European regions, different in their social-economic, and environmental aspects, from the north, Denmark, through the mid-Austria, and southern Spain and Greece.
Main R&I Objectives
O1. An advanced co-treatment system of WW and BW based on AnMBR integrating new advanced membranes and a tertiary treatment by Adsorption Column.
• Metabolic routes that allow the co-treatment of different WW and BW in a classical AnMBR.
• A new anti biofilm membrane for the AnMBR –by different treatments: Membrane Magnetic Vibration (MMV) treatment, coating with anti-biofilm nanoparticles (NPs) or with Carbon Dots (CDs).
• An Adsorption Column (AC) to remove emerging pollutants from the WW enabling water reuse in an I-US.
O2. To develop a pyrolysis system for the treatment of solid NRW to obtain different platform molecules and chars.
• A pyrolysis method to treat solid non-recyclable wastes (waste with complex composition) and to generate new streams (gas, liquids, and solids). The energy source for the pyrolysis will be the energy vector (CH4) obtained in the AnMBR.
• A purification method of the pyrolysis streams to obtain different platform molecules with applications in different industrial sectors (i.e. cosmetics, textiles, etc.).
• To develop low costs activated carbon and carbon dots from the solid stream of the pyrolysis.
O3. An IT Regional Management Platform (ITRMP) to foster and manage the implementation of I-U symbiosis activities at regional level. This platform will integrate two modules:
• To develop the IT Regional Management Platform architecture to include Edge/Cloud architecture, SQL/NoSQL data sources, and database architecture and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Federated Artificial (F-AI) applied to dynamic control and processes optimization.
• A Social Decision Support System (SDSS) to support policymakers and practitioners’ access, interpret and understand information from data, analyses, and models.
• An IIoT management platform (IIoTMP) for the water streams as part of the ITRMP - online monitoring the quality, quantity, and disruption of the treated wastewater flows
O4 To demonstrate and validate the technologies and the 4 I-US based EcoSites.
O5 Social innovation actions based on research settings to maximise the outcome and further drive the I-US replication in Europe.
• A set of facilitation services for I-US replication by iidentifying bottlenecks and define guidelines towards.
• An innovation non-profit social spin-off (Go-SYM) - To replicate the initiative.
• A network of waste associations, including those from the EcoSites, to assure the continuation of the dialogue on I-US.
• Establish a stakeholder forum at each EcoSite, to act via yearly meetings, written and online material for communication towards the assimilation of the I-US concept.
• A ‘Virtual I-US Game’ as a tool able to evaluate symbiosis concepts virtually.
O6 Asses the environmental, economic, and social impacts (including Societal Readiness Level - SRL) using Life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis as per (e.g. ISO 14000)
