Circular economy in action: IWA AD-19 technical visit to the thermal hydrolysis plant of the Pinedo WWTP

As part of IWA AD-19, we had the pleasure of hosting the technical visit to the Pinedo WWTP. This plant serves 1.8 million equivalent inhabitants of the metropolitan area of Valencia, returning reclaimed water and high-quality biosolids to local rice fields while protecting the ecosystem of the Albufera Natural Park.

The main protagonist of the visit was the Thermal Hydrolysis process of teCH4+, installed as a pre-treatment of anaerobic digestion. After three years of operation, the results speak for themselves: 

• Complete sludge sanitization
• Increase in biogas production of more than 30%
• Specific energy consumption of only 0.124 kg of steam per kg of sludge, with all the steam generated from the waste heat of the engines' exhaust gases, without the need to burn additional biogas.

These results confirm that thermal hydrolysis is a robust and energy-self-sufficient technology, capable of maximizing biogas yield and guaranteeing sanitized sludge suitable for agricultural recovery.

But beyond the numbers, we take away from this day a fantastic human experience. Those who accompanied us on the visit arrived with genuine curiosity. There was time to stop at each team, to ask about the day-to-day of the operation, for the details that do not appear in any paper, and to chat.  That real interest, that desire to understand not only the "what" but the "how", is what makes a technical visit a memorable experience for all of us who participate.

Thank you to all of you who made this visit possible, and thank you to all those who came to Pinedo with such a desire to learn.

Surely the technical visit, the paella with which we regained strength afterwards and the boat ride through an environment as fantastic as the Albufera will remain in the memory of all attendees.