ORION · ORganic waste management by a small-scale Innovative automated system of anaerobic digestION

Restaurants, hotels, markets, fisheries and other small to medium size agro-food industries have to manage 239 million tonnes of organic waste in Europe per year. The specific management of such waste, with respect to the legislative regulations of EU, involves costly treatment for SMEs and potential hygiene issues on site. ORION aims at allowing a vast majority of SMEs to manage their organic waste by themselves in order to decrease their treatment costs (storage, transport, landfill or incineration) and increase on-site hygiene conditions. Wastes will be also valorised as biomass to produce energy and increase SME autonomy and profitability.ORION main objectives consist of:Ø Developing for the first time anaerobic digestion machine at the SME scale (1 m3 to 50 m3)that will combine effectiveness for a large range of organic wastes and reduced capital andoperating costs.Ø Developing advanced control tools and sensors to reach an optimum reliabilityØ Increasing know-how on the impact of nanostructured surfaces on bacterial growth andincrease waste throughput in the digestorØ Developing a dissemination and training strategy in order to address a vast community ofSMEs and offer them a personalized serviceØ Contributing to the implementation of EU policies on waste management and renewableenergies production.A maximum autonomy, adaptability and reliability are targeted. The digester is expected to be very cost-effective for users. ORION partnership is composed of European and National IAG representing the targeted sectors: fishery/aquaculture, hotel-restaurants, small agro-food industries and a Core Group of representative SME partners involved in the pilot design ND testing with various waste qualities and quantities. They will rely on a interdisciplinary group of research centers in order to achieve the technical goals of the project.