Abstract:

Some academic research projects have been developed in Universidad de Guanajuato, in Guanajuato state (México) and in Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, in Catalunya (Spain) related to circular economy applied to pigs, specially in the process developed in slaughterhouses. The projects aim to create a proposal for a complete valuation of every waste and for the use of every part of the pig, so the cycle in the pigs’ slaughterhouse is completely closed. In this way the projects contribute to the circular economy. To achieve it, two students in Mexico (Master in Water science and Grade in Environmental engineering) and three in Catalonia (two from Master in Environmental engineering and one from Master in Sustainability) have completed their theses. They have also helped to initiate a biomass growing pilot plant to test some of the waste valuations.

Some visits to slaughterhouses and to waste valuation facilities in Mexico and Catalonia were done. Afterwards, a flow diagram of the pigs’ slaughterhouse was drawn for each country. Then, the attention was put into wastes and how are they reused, recycled or disposed. The present reuse or recycling of wastes is considered an existing synergy, and the existing synergies diagram was drawn. Finally, some proposals were considered in order to close the material cycle in the pigs’ slaughterhouses, so some new synergies were proposed and the proposed synergies diagram was also drawn. Some of the waste valuation proposals were tested in the pilot plant.

Although the project is not finished still, there are some preliminary results: 16 existing synergies have been figured out and 27 new synergies have been proposed. Some of the proposed are: protein and ferrous products extraction from blood, construction panels and compost from pig hair, insulin from the pancreas, among others.

The waste valuation undertaken was the use of wastewater to grow biomass. This biomass is used to produce pigs’ food, so the closure for the pig cycle is achieved.

Students are very satisfied with these academic research projects, as they are able to experiment and put into practice some of the new proposals for the circular economy.

Keywords:

Research Experiences, Circular Economy, Educational Experiences, Pig, Waste Valorization.