The Technological Center LEITAT welcomed, on the 20th of January, the follow-up meeting of the European project Echometer consortium formed by Env-Aqua, a coordinating body, C-Tech Innovation Ltd, Aguacure, Protection des métaux (PROMETRE), Union des Industries de Traitements de Surfaces (UITS) and Leitat. During the meeting, the second to be held since the project began in June 2009, addressed the technical progress achieved so far by the Echometer initiative. Likewise, the meeting offered participants as well, the opportunity to visit and see the facilities of the technological center.

The Echometer project seeks to develop, through a combination of technologies and electroextraction, electrocoagulation, a metal recycling system to train the metal finishing industry to recover waste. The initiative stems from a cooperation between entities of the United Kingdom, France and Spain, and aims to implement an industrial plant in an SME of the metal finishing sector in order to obtain a more efficient management of their solid waste, this treatment is focuses initially on the recovery of nickel.

This sector is currently under extreme financial and environmental pressures, both in relation to the inputs of raw materials and waste disposal; it has also has been identified as a key sector in the implementation of eco-innovative processes recovered materials (recovery of metals) in terms of energy efficiency, environmental and economic impact.

The main result of work performed by echo-sounder is to obtain a unit on an industrial scale plant adapted to a typical metal finishing, with this site may check details of the evidence; techno-economic models for a range of metals and an assessment of their life cycle to determine the environmental impact of the solution suggested by the project. The main outcome indicators will also appreciate the high purity of the metals recovered and, therefore, good resale value, the high efficiency in the recovery of extracted metal and its low environmental impact.

Taking into account the rising value of metals and the expectation that it will continue increasing because of the escalating demand, Echometer presents an interesting opportunity to achieve significant cost savings through the recovery of metal Waste from industry; metals, if not recovered, they would end up in landfills. In fact it is estimated that about 2,000 European companies could take this recovery process in a period of ten to fifteen years, thus increasing their competitiveness. Echometer project, which is co-financed by the European program CIP-EIP-ECO-Innovation 2008, is scheduled for completion in December 2011.