Project no. 031697

CYCLER SUPPORT

Supporting the implementation of FP6 research activities related to

waste water use and recycling by using new generation greenhouse systems,

adapted to the requirements of the MED partner countries

Priority B.1.2.

Mediterranean partner countries, Environment,
Improving the water consumption efficiency and effectiveness by users

and uses. Plant breeding for efficient crop water and nutrient use

Deliverable D 36 b “24 Months Activity Report”

Due date of deliverable: 15.12.2008

Actual submission date: 15.12.2008

Start date of project:01.11.2006Duration: 24 Months

Organisation name of lead contractor for this deliverable: TUB

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006)
Dissemination Level
PU / Public
PP / Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)
RE / Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services) / x
CO / Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)

Content

1. Publishable executive summary

2. Project objectives and major achievements during the reporting period

3. Workpackage progress of the period

4. Consortium management

5. Awareness rising, Disseminating and Exploitation

Publishable executive summary

Mediterranean Countries struggle with serious water problems like rising water competition between agriculture, households and industry, but limited and/or salt-affected water resources, irregular rainfall, escalating dehydration of landscape; and with inefficient wastewater treatment systems leading to pollution of surface- and groundwater. A solution is worked out in different recent research activities concerning greenhouse technology using unconventional water resources like urban wastewater, greywater, brackish water, seawater and rainwater harvesting.

The main topics of technology used are (1) increased water efficiency by lowered air velocity and enhanced air water vapour around the vegetation as well as rainwater harvesting from greenhouse roofs and storage, (2) proper use of wastewater or grey water in greenhouse irrigation, (3) reduced water demand in evaporative cooling by using sea water, (4) solar heating of sea- or brackish water in greenhouse roof area for combined evaporation and condensation (5) cooling of greenhouse air by heat exchanger elements with resulting condensation water yield from air water vapour (irrigation water recycling), (6) day night heat storages for getting coolant from night temperatures and (7) lowered energy consumption by using air movement of rising heated air and falling cooled air instead of using ventilators

However, these research activities have not been implemented in the Mediterranean Partner Countries so far. Main reasons are too high costs for the special water cycling greenhouse architecture and technology, insufficient studies about MPC’s wastewater collection systems and about the socio-economical benefits and risks to upgrade wastewater by greenhouse irrigation, and insufficient studies about the market value of useful crops which can be used in combination with greenhouse internal wastewater treatment.

In this context, the objectives of this project are to collect the missing information by accomplishing a detailed CYCLER-SUPPORT study, to disseminate the existing know-how of accomplished research activities and the completed study results mainly by a final CYCLER-SUPPORT-WORKSHOP, to give a clear view over further needed research activities to related stakeholders, to strengthen the exchange of know-how and co-operation between EU and MPC scientists, and to support the establishment of sustainable business-relations.

Project objectives and major achievements during the reporting period

Project objectives: The Background of this project is the problem of diminished water availability in Mediterranean countries, given by growing drought and over-exploitation of fossil water sources especially for agricultural use. A solution is worked out in different recent research activities concerning greenhouse technology using unconventional water resources like urban wastewater, greywater, brackish water, seawater and rainwater harvesting.

The main topics of technology used are:

-Increased water efficiency by lowered air velocity and enhanced air water vapour around the vegetation.

-Rainwater harvesting from greenhouse roofs and storage

-Reduced water demand in evaporative cooling by using sea water at the greenhouse air inlet instead of fresh water

-Filtration of infrared light and use of this part of the light spectrum in the greenhouse roof to heat up sea- or brackish water for combined evaporation and condensation in a greenhouse system

-Cooling of greenhouse air by heat exchanger elements with resulting condensation water yield from air water vapour (Irrigation water recycling)

-Day night heat storages for getting coolant from night temperatures

-Lowered energy consumption by using air movement of rising heated air and falling cooled air instead of using ventilators

This area of technology is called “New Greenhouse Generation”. It has the potential to change greenhouse horticulture from a water consuming into a water producing technology, by optimising water efficiency and by using marginal water in irrigation and evaporative cooling while giving back condensed water as a fresh water source.

As a main objective as a specific interdisciplinary interface of this project is the proper use of marginal water, especially urban waste water in irrigation and the use of these technologies in new generation greenhouses. The specific added value is related to the fact, that a lower need of irrigation water in a hot and humid climate also allows to reduce the nutrient input, especially the until now unsolved problem of nitrogen accumulation in soils and drainage water output.

A further objective of the project is to discuss the concepts with major stakeholders from both, horticulture and water management. For this, a workshop will be held in the second year of the project, that has been prepared and announced within the first year.

Major achievements: After an extended analysis of currently working projects in the described area and the identification of major stakeholders in both, horticultural and water affairs the main emphasis of the project was taken on the until now unsolved or at least open questions.

The final implementation guide describes within 5 steps the implementation of approaches. The concept consist of (1) the new generation greenhouse systems, (2) the formation of an urban water and matter cycle, (3) the accumulation of carbon in the urban perimeter (4) the use of saline water in combination with concentrated solar power generation and finally (5) the interaction of the previous approaches

Withhin the Annex, the localisation of the described measures within the exemplary regions of Agadir and Gabes is described. Finally, policy recommendations and an outline for ten research programmes as fist steps of implementation are presented.

Main points that have been investigated are:

-How can urban wastewater be used as a save water source in greenhouse irrigation? For this question, already a clear out view is worked out.

-Even if wastewater is used in irrigation within many informal ways, a secure use for food production, especially for export products will be very difficult due to the extremely different qualities of wastewater and differing contaminations. A much saver way of using urban wastewater is the pre-selection in the households into greywater, urine and faecal. Greywater can be used directly in the irrigation process due to its low pathogenic content. Urine can be easily pre-treated and added to the irrigation water in a controlled way to prevent over-nutrition and soil salinisation. Faecal can be composted or converted to Biogas, while the solid matter from these processes can be transferred to soil substrates.

-As large fractions of existing wastewater is not separated, a use for non eatable biomass as raw material for construction, textile, paper and chemical industries are of high interest, as a pure production of biomass for energetic use will not give sufficient outcome in the context of greenhouse cultivation.

-If using wastewater with only mechanical pre-treatment, greenhouses can be used for secondary treatment of the wastewater. For that, greenhouse cultivation has to be separated into two processes, where in the first one, plants are grown on a gravel bed with high vertical flow with water treatment by bacteria growing on the surface of the gravel. In the second stage (which can be 10 – 20 times larger) the drainage from the first stage can be used in sufficient quality for direct irrigation with zero discharge at best practice.

-There has been an extended view onto the urban water- and matter circuit, that includes water needed for irrigation and evaporative cooling and different treatment methods, that allow to use unconventional water sources. Also dry matter waste was subject of the concept. Mainly, a treatment with new pyrolysis technologies have been suggested, that allows a pollutant sink in the cycle and also allows to use of biochar as a residue from this process as a soil enhancer.

-The use of saline water for irrigation and greenhouse evaporative cooling and related technologies of greenhouse integrated desalination are described.

-Cross technology synergisms, especially the cooling water recycling from concentrated power stations within closed greenhouses have been investigated.

-A further question is related to implementation strategies. How can the new technologies be sufficiently cheap and simple in order to be used within the context of farming in Northern Africa. This question is related to a detailed analysis of the processes and an out-view on potential cost reduction regarding construction, energy management, water management and horticultural practice.

The results of the project, as worked out in the work packages 1 – 6 have been presented in an implementation guide, that is distributed through the project website and through email contact to a large group of stakeholders, that had been invited to the Cycler Workshop. The results of the workshop also have been integrated into the implementation guideline.

3. Workpackage progress of the period

WP 1, Task 1.1 Completion of the research activities and expertise assessment

A report of research activities and expertise assessment related to the project’s main objectives has been produced by the partners. It includes the following topics:

-Technology of rainwater harvesting.

-Use of wastewater in general agriculture irrigation.

-Management of saline water in irrigation.

-Separation of wastewater (faecal, urine, grey water) as a base for more hygienical wastewater irrigation and more controlled integration of plant nutrient use in wastewater.

-Closed greenhouse technology.

-Use of seawater for open greenhouse evaporative cooling.

-Water recovery in open greenhouses.

-Greenhouse roof integrated seawater desalination.

WP 1, Task 1.2 Setting up a stakeholder list

A stakeholder list (Deliverable 02) with a main focus on North African countries has been compiled. The list will be used in order to send information about the project activities and invitation flyer to the Cycler-Support Workshop , preferably via e-mail or fax.

The list of contacts includes stakeholders from greenhouse horticulture, water supply, sanitation and related policy-makers, as well as European scientists, who are involved in related projects with developing countries (e.g. German “Mega cities” projects funded by DFG). Actually, the list includes 187 contacts, more contacts will be added along the duration of the project and it is continuously updated

WP1, Task 1.3 Informing and inviting the stakeholders

A workshop flyer (Delieverable 03, Delivered end of February) has been designed, in order to inform about the general objectives of the project and some first details about the Cycler-Support Workshop. It has been distributed by email to major addresses of the stakeholder list (Task 1.2) and will now also be distributed together with a first newsletter. It can also be downloaded from the project’s website (

WP 2, Investigating the wastewater situation

Task 2.1 Wastewater situation assessment

Wastewater assessed of the situation in Gabes and Agadir (Chapter 1 and 2) has been completed during the first month of the reporting period. A deliverable report (Deliverable 4) has been submitted on the 31st of May.

The subject includes the quantity and quality of the wastewater and the resulting clear water. Emphasis is given on the specific technologies used and to the possibility of using treated wastewater in agriculture, esp. greenhouse horticulture. Gabes has only a few greenhouse areas in its perimeter, while Agadir is one of the larges production areas of Northern Africa. Because of this, a special report has been produced (chapter 3) concerning the actual situation of the greenhouse sector with specific emphasis on water availability as the main limiting factor of this branch. The investigation of regulations for biological and chemical contaminations of agricultural products in the MPCs and Europe (chapter 4) is being lead by TTZ, in order to proceed with the investigation of solutions for the wastewater pre-treatment and collection, applicable for the new greenhouse generation. In order, to amplify the available sources of irrigation water the outcomes of parallel ongoing European Research activities in this region such as the “PURATREAT” project and the NETSSAF coordination action have been evaluated and taken into account. Finally, a comprehensive report on the general questions of wastewater use in irrigation is included (chapter 5) as a basis information for the further work.

Task 2.2. Development of first implementation concepts

This task has been worked out during the whole reporting period. A deliverable report (Deliverable 5) has been submitted on the 31st of July.

Implementation measures are mainly related to the waste water offer. One part of the scenarios did examine the use of the existing waste water collection infrastructure and a part of the waste water treatment structure, while a specific pre-treatment strategy has been proposed, that enables an optimum availability of plant nutrient in the clear water output for regarding plant irrigation. Also minimisation of electric energy in the process was a subject (especially replacing compression based aeration of ponds by specific packed bed methods.

A second part of the scenarios has been worked out with regard to the two cities, their surrounding and regional context. Existing wastewater quantities were converted to needed greenhouse surfaces, which then were associated to specific areas in the surrounding of the cities.

A regional strategy of concentrated decentralisation for the future growth of the city is proposed, to allow a minimisation of transport between urban and greenhouse areas. This contributes to general urban master planning strategies.

For this case of non existing waste water collection in certain areas of the cities, the concept of water separation has been proposed, where the resulting grey water can be used for irrigation without further pre-treatment and applications will include decentralised greenhouse structures directly in the neighbourhood (greenhouses are placed in existing free spaces or are integrated into the structure of new neighbourhoods in the periphery of the city) or grey water is transported out of the city and greenhouse areas will remain separated areas in the perimeter.

Further concepts did propose to integrate seawater desalination into the greenhouse structure, where seawater is easily available. This is especially the case on the mounten slopes in the north of Agadir. In Gabes., the possibility of a distribution of seawater as a main water source is proposed to be transported through a new channel that in the long term can be built around the whole Shot el Djerid on the level of 40 m above sea level.

WP3, Investigating potentials for cost reduction

This task has been worked out during the whole reporting period. Several deliverable reports (Deliverable 6-12) have been submitted one month later on the 31st of August.

Cost reduction of closed greenhouses and greenhouse integrated desalination of the proposed technology and reduced complexity (also resulting into cost reduction) is a main goal for market acceptance in the MPC. Related measures can be subdivided into greenhouse construction, greenhouse cooling and irrigation technology.

For construction, an alternative design for a very cheap and wide spread greenhouse has been proposed. The existing design does not allow a closed environment, as greenhouse foils are penetrated by wires for fixing, resulting in many little holes in the plastic. A detailed examination for alternative and more stable construction methods has already been undertaken, including double curved geometries (sphere-like and tent-like shapes), with different methods of fixing and stretching of the foils.

For cooling, different methods are considered, including simple direct air-to-water heat exchangers. As this proposal is the most important for cost reduction, a calculation method for the until now unproved system has been worked out on the base of an Excel calculation sheet with integrated psychrometric formulas. Further more, the work on a more sophisticated calculation, that allows a precise simulation of the cooling processes has been started an will also be a part of the later scenarios (WP 5.1.).

Methods of improved accumulation of heat in the soil are proposed as more simple, space efficient and cheaper solutions are proposed as a further contribution to cost reductions.

For irrigation, the emphasis is (1) on the proposal of an adequate waste water pre-treatment strategy, that allows to maintain the plant nutrients in the water output. A further strategy follows the distribution of water under the soil with only little technical installations and little need of control and maintenance.

A one-week technical meeting between Partner ENIT (leader of Task 3.1.) and the project coordinator was held in Tunis in Early February in order to prepare the very important work of investigating and estimating the potentials to reduce the production and running costs for the new greenhouse generation.

Most parts of this work package were not based on existing research results, but did propose principal solutions, that have to be further worked out in future research and development projects. The work contributes as a base for the development of further research and policy recommendations in WP 5, Task 3.