Imagine your sewage plant not just cleaning water, but actually making money from what's in the dirty water. INCOVER built three demo plants that pull out valuable stuff — bio-plastics, organic acids, and biogas — from wastewater coming from towns, farms, and food factories. Think of it like recycling for water: instead of paying to throw away the waste, you sell what you extract. They proved it works at near-industrial scale across three real-world sites.
Wastewater treatment is expensive, energy-intensive, and produces nothing of value — it's pure cost. Water utilities and food manufacturers spend heavily on treating and disposing of wastewater while the nutrients, organics, and energy locked inside go to waste. Meanwhile, water scarcity is making clean water for irrigation increasingly difficult and costly to source.
Three demonstration-scale wastewater treatment plants that recover bio-plastics (PHA), organic acids, bio-methane, and clean irrigation water from municipal, farm, and food industry wastewater. Also delivered: a smart irrigation system at TRL 8, a Decision Support System with ICT tools, and optical sensing-based monitoring and control systems.
If you are a municipal water utility struggling with rising operation costs — this project demonstrated plants validated at TRL 7-8 that recover bio-plastics, organic acids, and biogas from municipal wastewater. The systems are designed for upscaling to 100,000 population equivalents and cut operation and maintenance costs by at least 50%.
If you are a food or beverage manufacturer paying high fees for industrial wastewater disposal — INCOVER built a demo-scale plant specifically for food and beverage industry wastewater. It recovers energy through anaerobic co-digestion and produces reclaimed irrigation water, turning your waste stream into a revenue source.
If you are a farm dealing with nutrient-rich wastewater and water scarcity — INCOVER developed smart irrigation systems validated at TRL 8 that treat farm wastewater and produce clean water suitable for crop irrigation. One of the three case studies was built specifically for agricultural wastewater.
The project target was to reduce overall operation and maintenance costs by at least 50% by turning wastewater into a source of energy and sellable bio-products. This was demonstrated across three case studies at TRL 7-8 scale.
INCOVER solutions were designed for straightforward upscaling to 100,000 population equivalents (PE). The three demo plants were validated at TRL 7-8, meaning they operated at near-industrial conditions. The exploitation strategy targets 27 INCOVER solution deployments within 5 years.
The consortium includes 11 industry partners and 11 SMEs across 7 countries, suggesting commercial exploitation rights are distributed among partners. Specific licensing terms would need to be discussed with the coordinator, ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION METALURGICA DEL NOROESTE in Spain.
Three recovery pathways were demonstrated: bio-plastics (PHA) and organic acids via algae/bacteria biotechnology, upgraded bio-methane via anaerobic co-digestion for near-zero-energy operation, and reclaimed irrigation water via adsorption and wetland-based biotechnology.
Yes. Three added-value plants were built and operated at demonstration scale treating real wastewater from municipalities, farms, and food and beverage industries. All three case studies were validated at TRL 7-8, plus the smart irrigation system reached TRL 8.
INCOVER includes optical sensing and soft-sensor monitoring, plus a Decision Support System (DSS) with ICT tools. Guidelines for use and operation of these tools were produced as a dedicated deliverable for end-users.
The project was funded under the EU WATER-1b-2015 topic and aligns with the EU circular economy strategy. Specific regulatory compliance details for your jurisdiction would need to be confirmed with the project team.
The INCOVER consortium is unusually strong for commercialization: 20 partners across 7 countries with 11 industry players and 11 SMEs, giving a 55% industry ratio. This is well above average for EU research projects and signals genuine market pull. The coordinator is a Spanish research association (AIMEN), supported by partners from Germany, Denmark, Greece, France, Portugal, and the UK. With 3 university partners providing scientific depth and 4 research organizations backing validation, the mix is tilted toward getting technology out of the lab and into the market.
The coordinator is ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION METALURGICA DEL NOROESTE (AIMEN) based in Spain. SciTransfer can facilitate an introduction to the project team.
Want to explore how INCOVER wastewater recovery technology could work at your plant? SciTransfer can arrange a direct introduction to the project team and help assess fit for your specific wastewater streams.
