Hydrokemos to clean groundwater with clean-tech
H2020-funded Hydrokemos has built a plant to purify nitrate-polluted water with clean-tech equipment in Borrassà, Spain.
Once operational, the plant will produce drinkable water to the city of Borrassà, the first town to use the new technology.
Hydrokemos’ technology – called electrodenitrification – destroys nitrates dissolved in water, transforming them into air.
The nitrates are entirely converted into N2 gas and oxygen – the basic components of air, which are of course environmentally harmless.
The process produces no waste and the energy generated is re-inserted into the system – fully “closing the loop”.
Algal bloom is a result of excess nutrients in water that boosts their explosive growth and decay, which consumes all the oxygen contained in water.
Excess nutrients in water are almost always induced by a discharge of detergents, fertilisers and sewage into aquatic systems.
Around 20% of European groundwaters are polluted by nitrates. Nitrates are common in the industry, chemistry or processes using nitric acid and in agriculture.
Hydrokemos received an SME Instrument Phase 2 grant of over €1m in 2015, which helped them develop the plant. In January 2017 the company received another €500,000 in seed funding from Victòria Venture Capital.
