Combined technologies for water, energy and, solute recovery from industrial process streams

Project Information

CORNERSTONE

Grant agreement ID: 101138504

DOI

10.3030/101138504

EC signature date 24 November 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 10 569 803,75

EU contribution

€ 10 569 803,75

Coordinated by

AALBORG UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CORNERSTONE (Combined technologies for water, energy and, solute recovery from industrial process streams)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The CORNERSTONE project, funded under the Horizon Europe program (Grant Agreement No. 101138504), addresses the critical need for sustainable industrial water management. With increasing industrial activities and climate change impacts, efficient water use and recycling have become paramount. The project aims to develop innovative solutions to enhance water efficiency and reduce environmental footprints in industrial processes.

Objectives:

1. Test, advance, and optimize novel water treatment modules on a laboratory scale and design CORNERSTONE systems in combination with existing industrial processes.
2. Test, advance, and optimize smart monitoring tools for the digitalization and intensification of industrial processes.
3. Integrate and validate CORNERSTONE system configurations at three demonstration sites (steel, P&P, and chemical industries).
4. Quantify the sustainability of CORNERSTONE's solutions in environmental, economic, and social dimensions.
5. Develop decision support tools for digitally enabled industrial water, energy and resources stewardship

pathway to impact:
CORNERSTONE will contribute to the destination long-term expected impacts “Climate neutral, Circular and Digitised Production” through a pathway clearly linking the Projects’ Results (R) to the Projects’ Outcomes (PO), and ultimately unleashing Project’s Impacts (PI) contributing to the destination’s Expected Impact (EI).

CORNERSTONE results will enable the achievement of POs matching with all the five topic’s EOs set out in the topic: i) during the project implementation, thanks to the direct use of project’s results in the three demonstration sites. ii) and directly and indirectly shortly after the project completion, thanks to a solid dissemination and
knowledge transfer activity aiming at reaching TRL6 and launching other demonstration sites. The contribution to the Destination’s EI will take the form of the following PIs, combining green and digital technologies:

• Introducing world-leading innovative solutions into the production and manufacturing processes, on a largescale, as regards the circularity of industrial wastewater, recycling of the water, improved valorisation of components in the wastewater, and reduction in the use of freshwater (Technological and Environmental impacts).
• Improving the digitisation of the new technologies pertaining to wastewater treatment (Technological impact).
• Improving, and remodelling the underpinning business models of major emitting industrial sectors affected by low performances concerning the treatment of wastewater, including recovery of components (Economic impact).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

CORNERSTONE has carried out mass, energy and solute balances from the steel, pulp and paper and chemical industries. Six different modules (heat exchanger, membrane bioreactor, nanofiltration, membrane distillation, electrodialysis and membrane crystallization) have been tested using real solutions.
Digital twins of the existing water management facilities are ready and can be used in the next steps of the project, for testing of the technology chains. Based on the results of lab trials, digital twins of relevant tested innovative techniques were developed. CORNERSTONE has developed concepts of smart monitoring systems for Modules 1-6 and integrated available sensor data in the a cloud-based platform. These results will be used later for demonstration/ simulation of technology chains.
The methodological bases for the sustainability assessment were established and the first information exchanges were performed with CORNERSTONE technologies and current industries treatments as baseline.
A review of policy and legislative context to industrial water efficiency was carried out during this period. Progress to date includes EU policy analysis, demonstration site analysis (including corporate and site level strategy review), review of existing industrial water management assessment tools, and inclusion of key ‘Tier 1’ questions in a baseline survey.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Testing of novel technologies such as non-clogging heat exchangers, hollow fiber nanofiltration, various configurations of membrane distillation and membrane crystallization and bipolar electrodialysis push the state-of-the-art of existing technologies for water, energy and solute recovery. For instance, the technologies provide high water recycling (for some technologies >90%), minerals and acid production. Other technologies provide recovery of chemical and thermal energy to reduce energy consumption in highly energy intensive industries. Introduction of digital twins of relevant tested innovative techniques into digital twins of the existing water management facilities combined with the developed smart monitoring concepts and cloud-based platform enables cost-efficient optimisation and testing of novel techniques. ific exploitation roadmap will be developed.

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