The general aim of the LIFE Project REVAWASTE (LIFE12 ENV/ES/000727) is the sustainable management of a broad spectrum of wastes (non-recyclable fraction proceeding from waste treatment plants and industrial, together with biomass, livestock and agro-food wastes) in an integrated plant.

This objective will be reached by means of the technological development and practical application of the “mixed plant” concept. This development will support a new waste management strategy, based on the separation, pre-treatment, recycling and valorisation steps.

In order to valorise in a joint form all the above-mentioned categories of waste, two different processes have been integrated. The first one is an anaerobic digestion system for the transformation of biodegradable organic waste into biogas. The second one is a low-temperature pyrolysis (chemical) treatment for the valorisation of the non-recyclable plastic waste fraction. Biogas together with pyrolysis gases will be used as fuel in an adapted co-generation engine.

As an added value, and in order to close the recycling cycle with a minimum environmental impact, the digestate generated in the anaerobic reactor will be valorise as a slow-release fertilizer (struvite), the solid fraction obtained in the pyrolysis process (ashes) will be transformed into carbon pellets and the liquid fraction obtained during the pyrolysis gas distillation process will be valorise as second generation biofuels.

Nowadays, independent processes of separation, pre-treatment and valorization have been already developed for specific wastes at industrial scale. However, no experimentation for the evaluation of the environmental, energy and economic advantages of the integration of these processes has been done up to now.

The objectives of the REVAWASTE project agree with the rules established in the Directive 2008/98/EC, on waste, that promotes a new waste hierarchy as a priority order in waste prevention and management legislation and policy: prevention; preparing for re-use; recycling; other recovery and disposal.