Águas do Tejo Atlântico - DEMO Partner

AdTA is a leading environmental company in Portugal, with a mission to contribute to national goals in wastewater collection and treatment, ensuring economic, technical, social, and environmental sustainability.

It manages the multi-municipality wastewater system of Greater Lisbon and the West, ensuring quality, continuity, and efficiency of public water services while protecting public health, promoting accessibility, environmental protection, financial sustainability, and regional development.

The system includes 103 WRRFs, 268 pumping stations, and 1,093 km of main sewers, treating approximately 194 Mm³/year, serving 2.3 million inhabitants across 23 municipalities in a 4,145 km² area.

AdTA engages in R&D activities with institutions, companies, and universities, focusing on innovative treatment processes and smart management tools. It has received international recognition, including the IWA Global Honour Award for the AQUASAFE project (a decision support platform for Lisbon’s sewer system), and the Water Reuse Europe 2021 Innovation Prize for the awareness campaign VIRA, promoting water reuse through craft beer production.

Ongoing EU-funded projects:

• SOLLAGUA, GestEAUr (Interreg Sudoe)

• ReLife, RecPeN (AdP)

Key projects supported by European and national programs:

• B-WATER-SMART (H2020): Accelerates the shift to water-smart economies through large-scale systemic innovation, offering integrated technological, management, and data solutions, promoting circular economy models.

• ECOVAL (Interreg SUDOE): Develops biotechnologies to recover carbon from urban organic waste and sewage sludge, producing volatile fatty acids (VFA) for plastics and agrochemicals.

• CircRural4.0 (Interreg SUDOE): Aims to transform small rural WWTPs into resource recovery units using a decentralized, holistic management model for economic and environmental viability.

• TWIST (Interreg SUDOE): Creates a cross-border co-creation and testing framework to bring water-related innovations to the market, promoting R&D and qualified job retention.

• INTEGRID (H2020): Bridges the gap between citizens and tech providers by enabling energy services and system optimization while ensuring sustainability and quality of supply.

• RES URBIS (H2020): Converts various types of urban bio-waste into valuable bio-based products using a unified technology chain, minimizing final waste.

• RESCCUE (H2020): Supports urban resilience to climate, social, and economic stresses by developing practical models and tools in Lisbon, Barcelona, and Bristol.

• LIFE IMPETUS: Demonstrates measures for removing pharmaceuticals in urban WWTPs using conventional activated sludge, with field tests in Lisbon (Beirolas) and Algarve.

• LIFE SWSS: Demonstrates an innovative smart platform for managing water supply systems, reducing energy use, GHG emissions, and leakage, and recovering energy from gravity-fed systems.

• artICA4nr: Promotes advanced eco-innovative controllers (art-ICA) for nutrient removal in WWTPs, improving treated water quality and operational efficiency.

• SmartWater4Energy: Develops intelligent energy management systems for wastewater treatment plants, supported by Portuguese national funding.

• PREPARED (FP7): Collaborates with utilities to develop strategies that address water sector challenges from climate change, ensuring resilient infrastructure.

• TRUST (FP7): Delivers knowledge and innovation to support sustainable urban water services, including governance models, tools, and integrated management approaches tested across nine pilot cities.