POST-PURPLE, a new Horizon Europe research and innovation project, officially launched with its Kick-Off Meeting held on 21–22 January 2026 at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) campus in Móstoles, Madrid. The project consortium, composed of 15 partners, is led by URJC. BEST participates in the project as partner.

POST-PURPLE aims to transform urban wastewater and organic waste into valuable resources by developing innovative bio-based technologies that produce nutrients, proteins, and natural compounds. By reducing emissions and valorising wastewater and organic municipal waste, the project supports zero-waste and zero-pollution goals while significantly improving the sustainability of urban waste treatment systems.

Urban wastewater treatment plants and organic waste facilities are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption across Europe. At the same time, large volumes of valuable organic material remain underutilised. POST-PURPLE addresses this challenge by introducing advanced circular solutions that convert waste streams into resources, helping cities reduce pollution while creating new value chains.

During the Kick-Off Meeting, partners presented their technical approaches, discussed pilot activities and upscaling, and defined next steps for implementation across the project’s demonstration sites. Elisa Carlon and Kai Schulze participated to the Kick-Off meeting on behalf of BEST.

Over the coming months, POST-PURPLE will begin developing and validating its integrated technology portfolio, aiming to demonstrate practical pathways toward cleaner, more circular urban biorefineries and a measurable reduction of diffuse emissions to air and water.

Internal contact person: Elisa Carlon / Franziska Klauser

Consortium Partners

• Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Spain
• Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH (BEST), Austria
• Strane Innovation (STRANE), France
• Imperial College of Science Technology and Medi (ICL), United Kingdom
• Food4Sustainability – Associacao para a Inovaca (F4S), Portugal
• FCC Aqualia SA (Aqualia), Spain
• Water Europe (WE), Belgium
• Universidad de Valladolid (UVA), Spain
• Anonymi Etaireia Diacheirisis Aporrimmaton per Dytikis Makedonias (DIADYMA), Greece
• Tehnoloski Fakultet Novi Sad (FTNS), Serbia
• Asociacion de Investigacion de Materiales Plasticos y Conexas (AIMPLAS), Spain
• Cluster Viooikonomias kai Perivallontos Dytikis Makedonias (CLUBE), Greece
• University of Western Macedonia (UOWM), Greece
• Econward Tech, S.L. (ECW), Spain
• European Science Communication Institute (ESCI), Germany

2026-03-12