European projects

Automate vertECO

VertECO is an indoor, customised green wall system designed to significantly reduce drinking water consumption, by providing a plant-based technology, which purifies and storm- and greywater (shower, tub, washbasin, kitchen sink, roof runoff). The vertECO system consists of several vertically arranged, aerated plant vessels in which the wastewater is treated to possible water reuse quality. The functional principle of vertECO consists in pumping water from the topmost wetland stage of the system to subjacent levels within the root zone, in order to: i) filter and clean it, during this passage, by plant-initiated microbial degradation processes and ii) collect it in a clean water tank, from where the purified water can be directed towards other destinations.

The main innovation of this project is the coupling of the system with customised sensor & control units that verify the quality of treated and purified greywater, ensuring the accordance with the required standards for other uses (e.g. toilet flushes, irrigation systems, washing machines). The system is also equipped with a special software, based on control algorithms and user-defined settings, which is able to monitor sensor data responding to water quality via activation/deactivation of control devices (pumps and valves). The system has been finally designed to host an on-site energy generation system such as plant microbial fuel cells (PMFC), that ensure broad energy autonomy of the sensor & control unit by using electrochemically active bacteria (and their interaction with organic pollutants present in any watery environment) to convert chemical energy into electrical energy.

The system features characteristics as user friendly interface, low-cost, low-energy consumption and easy maintenance which make it even more attractive.

Project coordination
alchemia-nova

Project status
completed, Start 11/2017, duration 12 months
Call Identifier: H2020-INNOSUP-02-2017
Budget: 119,125 Euro