Business and Innovation Areas

Water

Water is essential for supporting life, serving as a medium for processes, providing food, acting as a raw material in agriculture and industrial production, facilitating transport and cleaning, generating energy, and functioning as a critical component of infrastructure. Addressing challenges such as drought, water scarcity, pollution, and regional distribution conflicts is vital. In line with its mission, AWAM is dedicated to ensuring a clean and reliable water supply for society, as well as offering a valuable resource for Portuguese industry. The development and testing of innovative technologies for water treatment, reuse, and consumption reduction are the key avenues that AWAM is actively pursuing.

Fraunhofer Portugal AWAM focuses on recovery technologies for water and wastewater to promote reuse in industrial and agricultural production. This initiative is particularly important given the growing pressure on water resources and the need to minimize organic inputs into water bodies. The enabling technologies include:

- Inorganic membranes

- Efficient advanced oxidation processes

- Photochemical treatment methods

- Process-integrated water quality monitoring

The center develops tailored solutions in collaboration with innovative companies, academia, and other relevant partners.

Application Markets:

- Industrial and municipal wastewater

- Textile

- Pulp and paper

- Chemical and petrochemical

- Dairy

- Agri-food and beverage

Energy

Agriculture, industrial production, and wastewater treatment all contribute significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which must be addressed through sustainable energy technologies. Transitioning to clean energy sources and reducing energy consumption in these processes are essential for achieving zero-emission goals and enhancing industrial competitiveness. This primarily involves developing and implementing technological solutions for carbon capture and utilization, as well as producing renewable and low-carbon fuels, which can be integrated into Power-to-X applications. Renewable fuels such as biogas, biomethane, and hydrogen play a crucial role in reducing emissions within energy systems and managing organic waste.

Digestible and fermentable products possess energetic potential that can be harnessed through advanced processing technology. Therefore, biomass energy will be one of the focuses of AWAM, including research in the following areas:

- Biogas production and optimization

- Biomethane production

- Renewable and low carbon fuels production

- Power-to-X processes

- Carbon capture and utilisation

Application Markets:

- Agriculture

- Animal farming (e.g., cattle, pig, poultry)

- Beverages

- Dairy

- Energy production

- Food

- Wastewater treatment

- Waste management

Resource valorisation

Wine, olive oil, vegetable products, and forestry-derived materials are among the most significant export goods in the Portuguese economy. However, these sectors face several challenges, including soil overuse - such as high nitrate concentrations resulting from excessive fertilizer use and intensive cattle production - as well as the management of organic waste. Additionally, there are increasing prices for nutrients and fertilizers, a heavy reliance on water resources, and a shortage of manual labor.

Optimizing processes for the sustainable use of biomass and residues, while also designing strategies to enhance the circularity of biomaterials, nutrients, and liquid residues, can create new recycling pathways and economic opportunities for industries and communities. Furthermore, the European Union acknowledges the importance of critical raw materials such as phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium, all of which are directly relevant to the agricultural and forestry sectors. This recognition drives efforts to recover, reuse, and valorize these materials to the fullest extent possible.

AWAM integrates various competences and process technologies from its portfolio, either individually or in combination, in an environmentally and economically holistic manner to recover, reuse, and valorize important compounds from by-product streams.

Activities in this business area include:

- Extraction of value from by-product streams

- Recovery of nutrients and other added-value compounds

- Life cycle assessment (LCA)

- System integration and scale-up

- Definition of integrated business models

Application Markets:

- Industries such as energy, waste management, manufacturing;

- Agriculture and forestry sectors;

- Agri-food businesses;

- Governments and regional policy makers;

- Raw materials sector;

- Implementation of circular economy business models.