The research and innovation project Horizon 2020 "HYDROUSA" coordinated by the Athens Polytechnic and financed by the European Community with over 12 million euros, has allowed the design of a sewage collection and purification system aimed at producing water for irrigation, biogas for heating and compost for agriculture.
The system was created thanks to the work of a group of European researchers and engineers, including professionals from ASA, the Environmental Services Company of Livorno, the Polytechnic University of Marche and the company Iridra of Florence (an engineering company specializing in solutions based on nature).
The pilot case (together with the plants built in the Greek islands of Tinos, Mykonos and Lesvos) it was sized to be built in the small prison island of Gorgona. Once in operation, the system, consisting of a simple maintenance anaerobic biological reactor and some phytodepuration tanks already present on the island, will allow to demonstrate the potential still present in the wastewater of the purifiers.
But the initiative has a double positive effect: the work will in fact be carried out with the contribution of the same inmates on the island who will participate in the construction and management of the facility, thus contributing to the re-education and reintegration of inmates, primary objectives of a detention institution.
