Igualada City Council grants the land adjoining the treatment plant so that the tanners can expand it and launch a water reuse project

Igualada City Council has signed the concession of the municipal land adjoining the Igualada tanners' water treatment plant, Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació (IDR). With this new space, the plant's facilities will be able to grow, making it possible to begin the construction of a Water Regeneration Station (ERA), in order to create a water reuse system that will return water directly to the companies, reducing consumption by between 50% and 70%.

The tanning industry, as a player in the circular economy, since it adds value to a waste product of the food sector in order to produce durable consumer goods that are useful to society, is very much aware that water is a scarce resource and that managing it well is a fundamental pillar of the sustainable use of natural resources.

Within the horizon of zero waste in the tanning industry, and in a context in which the growing problem of water supply in Catalonia is a serious concern, the IDR treatment plant is committed to new technologies in order to implement this Water Regeneration Station (ERA).

This ambitious project consists of treating the effluent from the IDR treatment plant (the water leaving the plant once already treated) in order to obtain a flow of osmosis-treated water (practically pure water) and another of salt water, both reusable by the tanning industry or for other purposes. The project has two phases. The first is a pre-treatment stage to prepare the water so that it can enter a membrane system, and the second consists of passing the water through different types of state-of-the-art membranes to separate the water from the salt and other elements present, in various stages such as nanofiltration and osmosis. The pilot water regeneration plant is now ready to begin sending water tankers to companies in order to start the experimentation and process adjustment phase, which will be carried out during 2023.

Water is a natural resource and an indispensable source of life, essential for improving living conditions, economic growth, environmental conservation and sustainable development. It is a finite and scarce resource, and the ever more evident effects of climate change are leading us towards a future in which saving water and using it more efficiently will be essential. In this respect, the Catalan Water Agency currently regenerates 39 hm3/year in Catalonia through Water Regeneration Stations. With this project IDR plans to regenerate up to 0.5 hm3/year (almost 1.4 million litres a day).

The treatment plant of Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació S.L. (IDR), one of the pioneering plants in Europe for the treatment of industrial wastewater, treats every day the water generated in the leather transformation process by the 28 tanning companies in Igualada that are members of Leather Cluster Barcelona, together with part of the urban water and water from other industries. IDR also contributes knowledge on good water management and water saving to the whole cluster.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.