Visit Asturias Paradise Hub 4 Circularity

This is one of the inter-territorial activities planned for CHEERS4EU for the second semester of the project.

During the study visit, the internal activities of the consortium will be interspersed with activities in which regional stakeholders, prominent in the formulation of industrial symbiosis or urban industrial symbiosis initiatives, will present to the participants their facilities, examples of projects carried out and challenges for a deeper deployment of this type of initiatives. 

The draft programme of the visit was presented to the local stakeholders on 25 September at the meeting organised to present the CHEERS4EU project, its objectives and to check the possible interest of the participants. In the course of this meeting, the representatives of the chemical industry association who participated in the first CHEERS4EU study visit to Limburg had the opportunity to convey to the other participants the interest of the collaborative initiatives seen in Limburg, and Sekuens requested the cooperation of the local stakeholders as co-hosts for the organisation of the study visit in Asturias. 

As the main objective of the Asturias Paradise Hub 4 Circularity is based on the need for Asturias to specialise in waste recovery technologies and the development of value chains in terms of residues - technology - market (industry), it was suggested to focus the agenda of the study visit on the infrastructures of the Integrated Waste Recovery Circuits initiative, an inventory of public and private R&D pilot plants for the recovery of waste materials identified in the region. This catalogue currently consists of 39 units that reproduce processes or parts of processes applicable to waste recovery, including CCUs, that can work together with different symmetries to test comprehensive recovery processes. 

With this in mind, during the study visit to Asturias, in addition to monitoring the self-assessment of the H4C models currently being carried out by the consortium partners, it is planned to visit some interesting circularity initiatives in the region, both in local industry, such as the pilot plant for CO2 capture attached to the HUNOSA fluidised bed combustion plant, or the GasLAB at the ArcelorMittal R&D centre, and in the public sector, such as COGERSA or CADASA, public service companies for waste and water management respectively.