Green Brine: turning salty waste into energy and value
As sustainability pushes deeper into business and consumer choice, Aceitunas Cazorla, a Alicante-based supplier to major retailers, partners with technology institutes to pilot a project that extracts methane and hydrogen from brine. The Valencia Innovation Agency, together with the Ainia Technology Center and the Ceramics Technology Institute, backs an effort aimed at treating waste with environmental risk and turning it into useful outputs.
Traditionally, brines have been managed in open ponds with accelerated evaporation. These ponds either rely on natural processes or demand substantial energy costs. In the natural approach, ponds require a broad footprint and must be kept watertight, with routine checks to prevent seepage that could threaten aquifers. Such drawbacks motivate the search for cleaner treatment methods.
The Green Brine project seeks a more sustainable path by achieving clean discharge with low salinity while converting organic matter and salt into recoverable products and energy carriers such as biogas, biomethane, and biohydrogen. Led by Aceitunas Cazorla and supported by two technology institutes, the project has backing from AVI, which contributed 490,000 euros in the latest funding round.
Aceitunas Cazorla has produced a wide range of products for over six decades, including olives filled with anchovy paste, lemon varieties, natural pepper, and seedless options, along with a variety of sauces. The company manufactures Carrefour and Lidl private brands and reported a turnover near 150 million euros in recent figures. Gumer Marín, who oversees the project at the company, describes the initiative as an integrated effort to recover different brine streams generated during preservation and packaging, using systems that are environmentally friendly and cost-efficient, with a strong emphasis on practical, real-world results.
To reach the goals, Green Brine partners combine several technical approaches to improve outcomes. Jorge García, director of product technologies and processes at Ainia, notes that brine streams will undergo a filtration step to recover cellulose materials and polyphenols that could benefit other industrial sectors. In addition, bacteria-based fuel cells will be used to convert remaining organic matter into higher-value products for energy use.
Polyphenols, for instance, may find applications as cosmetic additives, while other emerging components such as soda or acid could be repurposed by pickle manufacturers and used as energy carriers for machinery and boilers. The overarching aim is to advance sustainability and strengthen the circular economy, according to García.
As part of the effort, the Institute of Ceramic Technology is developing clay-based membranes for saltwater filtration that are substantially more affordable than current options and more durable than polymer-based equivalents. This advancement supports the broader strategy of treating industrial brines more efficiently and with less environmental impact.
Across the project, the consortium combines industrial experience from the olive and pickle sub-sectors with ITC expertise in materials and ceramic processing, and Ainia’s strengths in electrochemical systems for the water cycle and residual liquid treatment. While the initial focus centers on the olive and pickle sector, the approach is designed to be applicable to other sectors that generate similar brine waste, including water utilities and plastics washing and recycling operations. The goal is to scale solutions that protect ecosystems while delivering tangible benefits for industry.
In the broader business context, Green Brine represents a concrete step toward sustainability by turning waste into value. The collaboration brings together practical industry knowledge and cutting-edge materials science to create processes that reduce environmental risk and open avenues for renewable energy generation from salty effluents. This integrated approach underscores the potential for waste streams to contribute to energy and material cycles instead of simply being discarded. [Citation: Valencia Innovation Agency, Ainia Technology Center, Ceramics Technology Institute, Aceitunas Cazorla]