This project combines classical wastewater treatment processes (primary settling, activated sludge and anaerobic digestion) with membrane filtration to raise the percentage of organic matter diverted to anaerobic digestion. Transferring this technology to existing WWTPs will significantly reduce power consumption, increase treatment capacity in current infrastructures, and generate quality effluents suitable for reuse in agriculture and the environment.

The project’s general objectives are the following:

- To determine the behaviour of different types of membranes for treating raw wastewater and primary settling effluent.

- To optimise the treatment system proposed to maximise energy production, raise WWTP capacity and obtain a quality effluent suitable for a range of different purposes. This optimisation includes determining the optimal interval of the operational parameters and developing and implementing pilot-scale control systems.

- To study the microbial and pathogen communities present in the different systems and determine their relationships with operational and environmental variables.

- To analyse the degradation of priority and emerging substances and metabolites generated in the proposed treatment schemes.

- To analyse the financial (investment, operations and maintenance) and environmental (life cycle analysis) costs of the scheme proposed.