FCC Medio Ambiente is participating in the development of the European project United Circles: Networked industrial-urban symbiosis value chain demonstrators for biomaterials, C&DW, circular water loops & WWTPs, driven by Hubs 4 Circularity, led by the CARTIF technology centre.

The kick-off meeting of the project, which seeks to establish industry-society relations for a more efficient use of resources thus achieving a reduction of the waste generated, was held on 13^th November at the San Agustín Cultural Centre (Valladolid, Spain). The main objective of United Circles is to accelerate progress towards a completely decarbonised future, in which the waste and water cycles are closed.

The proposal, with 46 partners from 14 different countries and one international organisation, will implement three value chains for the recycling of organic waste, wastewater and construction and demolition waste. All activities will take place in three European demonstrators, each integrated into a regional circularity hub:

• In Spain, specifically in Salamanca, energy and resource recovery from organic waste, wastewater and recovered sewage sludge and cellulose is being pursued.
• In Italy, in the Veneto region, bioplastics will be produced from polymers recovered from used cooking oils.
• In Turkey, in the Ankara area, construction and demolition waste will be recovered for the manufacture of new low-carbon buildings.

Each of the demonstrators will in turn have a ‘mirror hub’, a demonstrator where the actions developed will be replicated by adapting the technologies to the situation in these countries. The mirror demonstrators are located in Hungary, Greece, the United Kingdom and South Africa.

In addition, several organisations from Slovenia, Lebanon, Austria and France are involved to support the formation of ‘seed demonstrators’, where the development of a network of stakeholders and interested parties is planned to start, in order to set up new demonstration nodes in the future.

Within the project, FCC Environment focuses on the valorisation of waste streams for the recovery of nutrients and energy vectors. To this end, it will apply plenty recovery processes such as the biological methanation of various biogas streams for conversion into biomethane, the improvement of anaerobic digestion of waste streams to maximise biogas production at its waste treatment centres and the application of innovative technologies such as hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to obtain high-value products. The company boasts internal R&D&I resources that allow it to offer the most innovative solutions to its clients. Its innovation activity has meant an investment of close to €4 million in 2023, and in its 2050 Sustainability Strategy it has committed to this figure reaching 1% of turnover. FCC Medio Ambiente has also maintained the certification of its R&D&I Management System for another year, in accordance with the UNE 166002 standard.

United Circles aims to achieve European and international cooperation for the creation of circular cities through urban-industrial symbiosis to reduce waste, starting with urban waste, wastewater and construction and demolition waste. The project has been funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe programme, with a total of €25,360,000, and starting this November will last for 48 months.

Call: HORIZON-CL4-2024-TWIN-TRANSITION-01
Project: 101178798