Project description
Renewable energy solutions for water desalination
Desalination is essential for water security on a global scale. The EU-funded AQUASOL project aims to integrate renewable energy into desalination through a fault-tolerant multiport converter, which simplifies and improves reliability of power electronics and incorporates hybrid energy storage to manage short-term and long-term supply. This makes it ideal for grid-independent operation in remote islanded scenarios. In terms of filtration efficiency, it is developing two-dimensional material-based membranes paired with specific treatment chemicals. A model-based energy management system ensures minimum energy consumption throughout the operation, and the recycling of brine and wastewater is prioritised for irrigation. Ultimately, AQUASOL explores societal measures to overcome adoption hurdles, ensuring that this energy-efficient, sustainable technology can be successfully implemented on a global scale.
Objective
The amount of freshwater available has drastically decreased due to rapid population growth, industrialization, and recurring dry extremes. Merely 3% of freshwater makes up all of Earth's water resources, with saline water making up the other 97%. One-fifth of the world's population, according to the World Health Organization, resides in nations where freshwater is scarce. For this reason, desalination of seawateror brackish water is one of the essential solutions to the worldwide problem of water scarcity. However, the main barriers to the general adoption of desalination systems are the substantial upfront technology costs, and the large amount of energy that is needed for the technological processes.
The major goal of AQUASOL is to develop a technological platform that enables the massive penetration of renewable energy sources into the desalination technology with no impact on the power network and providing disruptive, energy-efficient solutions for saline/brackish water pre-treatment and filtration, as well as brine and wastewater recycling. The system will be supplied with hybrid energy storage system and connected to the modular fault-tolerant multiport converter. This approach will help not only to reduce number of power electronics converters, provide both long-term and short-term energy storage capabilities, stabilize the system against intermittent renewable energy inputs but also support grid-independent operation in remote or island scenarios. A combination of novel two-dimensional material-based membranes and specific chemicals for seawater and wastewater treatment will be developed. To maintain minimum energy consumption during operation, the model-based energy management system will be developed, too.
This closed-loop approach minimizes waste and maximizes resource utilization for irrigation in agriculture. The concept will address and investigate societal challenges of technology adoption and measures to overcome identified challeges
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.6 - Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL6-2024-CLIMATE-02
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08930 Sant Adria De Besos
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.