iMETland has been included in the CORDIS results pack on water innovation

Industrial symbiosis in the circular economy turns an output from one process into an input for another. The iMETland project has demonstrated that urban wastewater can be sustainably cleaned, and be suitable for irrigation, at no energy cost, using bacteria which make an electrical current from pollutants.

To help close the gap between innovative water solutions and marketplace replication, the iMETland (A new generation of Microbial Electrochemical Wetland for effective decentralized wastewater treatment) project developed a full-scale application of an eco-friendly technology which treats urban sewage produced by small communities, with zero-energy costs. The technique combines constructed wetland biofilters with Microbial Electrochemical Technologies (MET).

Combining electroactive bacteria with electroconductive material has resulted in depuration rates that are 10 times higher than with traditional techniques. Additionally, as the result is very low biomass, it avoids clogging the biofilters with sediment (colmatation). Crucially, the process removes pollutants from the wastewater and, after electro-oxidative treatment, produces water which is pathogen-free and suitable for irrigation. Having already passed the research and pilot phases of development, EU-funded support has allowed iMETland to progress to a full-scale demonstration to accelerate market uptake.

You can continue reading the article in this link, where you can download the document published by the European Commission that collects information on ten projects financed by the European Union in the field of water, including the iMETland project.

iMETland has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement N.642190.​