ACQUA 360

DeltAcque participates in the ACQUA 360 project together with Consorzio Aquarno Spa, ARCHA, Po.Te.Co S.C.R.L., Conceria Settebello SpA, Conceria Victoria S.r.l. and Conceria Sanlorenzo SpA.

The ACQUA360 project aims to build a pilot plant for the purification and refinement of civil wastewater, with the aim of producing enough process water that can be supplied to 3 tanneries representing the Tuscan production sector, to test and validate their use throughout the entire tannery cycle, to 100% of the company's production potential.

The project is a preliminary and indispensable step for the design and realization of the industrial waterworks in the Tuscan tanning industry, already planned under the agreement between the Ministry of the Environment, the Tuscany Region and the local administrations. Prior to the construction of the industrial waterworks and the civil wastewater treatment plant, which will have to supply 18.000 m³/day of refined/purified water to the subfund, given the huge investment to be sustained and the environmental, technical and political importance of initiative, it is necessary to validate the effective reusability of this purified water in the tanning process.

The ACQUA360 pilot will consist of treatment steps for ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, disinfection, cooling and storage of treated/purified water, and then to supply the tanneries with tank-truk with a water treatment potential of 100 m³/day.

The project involves 3 Tuscan tanneries (with different tanning processes), which will test the ACQUA360 purified water in their industrial process. In this way, it is possible to validate the water purification process on the basis of the actual feasibility of the reuse, pointing to any problems and considerations that will have to be taken into account when the industrial waterworks is being realized.

The extension of testing to the entire compartment and extended validation will be assured by tests of the use of purified water also on "industrial processes" other than those conducted by the tanneries partner, so as to give "robustness" and greater representativeness to the sub-fund. In this way "guidelines for end-users" for all the Tuscan tanneries that will be served by the industrial waterworks will be draw up. In this way mechanical, chemical-physical and commercial performance of tanned leather can be quantified, as well as, the quality of leather produced during the tannery tests, compared to the leather obtained in traditional way.