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Funded originally by the Xunta de Galicia and CDTI,
the project is sponsored by Augas de Galicia and by
Consorcio del Louro, in addition to the collaboration of
the Universities of Santiago de Compostela and Vigo
Outdoor view of the building housing the underground homogenising tank and the two ELAN
®
reactors which are part of the project.
The development of this technology rea-
ches its last phase thanks to the successful
collaboration of the company and the Uni-
versity of Santiago de Compostela (USC)
which since 2000 have been investigating
the anammox technology which is at the
core of the ELAN
®
, system. Since 2009, the
Company has worked jointly with the Uni-
versity of Vigo on the automation, control,
and monitoring system for this technology.
The Administration has also wagered on
the ELAN
®
technology. Augas de Galicia
has sponsored the project executed at the
Guillarei treatment plant. This commitment
is evident as shown by the support of the
Xunta (regional governing body) for the first
pilot projects in Vigo and by CDTI which
has co-funded the development phase in
Guillarei.
After two months of operations, the system
has reached 100% of its capacity for partial
nitrification and it is anticipated that in six
months the system will reach a treatment
capacity of 0.6 kg N/(m
3
d), the unit’s de-
sign value. After this success at the indus-
trial scale, FCC Aqualia has already secured
another contract from Frisco, a company in
Porriño (Pontevedra). Future implementa-
tions of this technology are planned for Bar-
celona and several proposals have already
been submitted in Spain and abroad.