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Microbial Desalination for Low Energy Drinking Water

Objective

Shortage of fresh water has become one of the major challenges for societies all over the world. Water desalination offers an opportunity to significantly increase the freshwater supply for drinking, industrial use and irrigation. All current desalination technologies require significant electrical or thermal energy, with today's Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination units consuming electric energy of at least 3 kWh/m3 – in extensive tests about ten years ago, the Affordable Desalination Collaboration (ADC) in California measured 1.6 kWh/m3 for RO power consumption on the best commercially available membranes, and total plant energy about twice as high.
To overcome thermodynamical limitations of RO, which point to 1.09 kwh/m3 for seawater at 50 % recovery, Microbial Desalination Cells (MDC) concurrently treat wastewater and generate energy to achieve desalination. MDCs can produce around 1.8 kWh of bioelectricity from the handling of 1 m3 of wastewater. Such energy can be directly used to i) totally remove the salt content in seawater without external energy input, or ii) partially reduce the salinity to lower substantially the amount of energy for a subsequent desalination treatment.
MIDES aims to develop the World’s largest demonstrator of an innovative and low-energy technology for drinking water production, using MDC technology either as stand-alone or as pre-treatment step for RO.
The project will focus on overcoming the current limitations of MDC technology such as low desalination rate, high manufacturing cost, biofouling and scaling problems on membranes, optimization of the microbial-electrochemical process, system scaling up and economic feasibility of the technology. This will be achieved via innovation in nanostructured electrodes, antifouling membranes (using nanoparticles with biocide activity), electrochemical reactor design and optimization, microbial electrochemistry and physiology expertise, and process engineering and control.

Call for proposal

H2020-NMP-2014-2015

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Sub call

H2020-NMP-2015-two-stage

Coordinator

FCC AQUALIA SA
Net EU contribution
€ 2 137 701,56
Address
Calle Federico Salmon 13
28016 Madrid
Spain

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Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Other funding
€ 916 157,82

Participants (12)

Third-party

Legal entity other than a subcontractor which is affiliated or legally linked to a participant. The entity carries out work under the conditions laid down in the Grant Agreement, supplies goods or provides services for the action, but did not sign the Grant Agreement. A third party abides by the rules applicable to its related participant under the Grant Agreement with regard to eligibility of costs and control of expenditure.

HIDROTEC TECNOLOGIA DEL AGUA SL
Spain
Net EU contribution
€ 34 121,44
Address
Avenida Kansas City 9
41007 Sevilla

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Region
Sur Andalucía Sevilla
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Other funding
€ 14 623,47
FUJIFILM MANUFACTURING EUROPE BV
Netherlands
Net EU contribution
€ 530 582,33
Address
Oudenstaart 1
5047 TK Tilburg

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Region
Zuid-Nederland Noord-Brabant Midden-Noord-Brabant
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Other funding
€ 227 392,42
FUNDACION IMDEA AGUA
Spain
Net EU contribution
€ 965 258,75
Address
Avenida Punto Com N2
28805 Alcala De Henares Madrid

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Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Activity type
Research Organisations
Other funding
€ 0,00
SGL CARBON GMBH
Germany
Net EU contribution
€ 451 937,50
Address
Werner Von Siemens Strasse 18
86405 Meitingen

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Region
Bayern Schwaben Augsburg, Landkreis
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Other funding
€ 193 687,50
ACONDICIONAMIENTO TARRASENSE ASSOCIACION
Spain
Net EU contribution
€ 835 581,25
Address
Carrer De La Innovacio 2
08225 Terrassa

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Research Organisations
Other funding
€ 0,00
MIKROLIN HUNGARY TERMELO ES SZOLGALTATO KFT
Hungary
Net EU contribution
€ 160 300,00
Address
Buzavirag Utca 7
2800 Tatabanya

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Dunántúl Közép-Dunántúl Komárom-Esztergom
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Other funding
€ 68 700,00
ONCONTROL TECHNOLOGIES LDA
Portugal
Net EU contribution
€ 274 756,30
Address
Largo Dos Loios
1100-312 Lisboa

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Continente Área Metropolitana de Lisboa Área Metropolitana de Lisboa
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Other funding
€ 117 752,70
SIMTECH GMBH
Austria
Net EU contribution
€ 357 245,00
Address
Riesstrasse 120
8010 Graz

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Südösterreich Steiermark Graz
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Other funding
€ 153 105,00
ROOD WIT BLAUW WATER SERVICES BV

Participation ended

Netherlands
Net EU contribution
€ 0,00
Address
Ambachtstraat 20
7609 RA Almelo
SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Oost-Nederland Overijssel Twente
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Other funding
€ 0,00
STICHTING IHE DELFT INSTITUTE FOR WATER EDUCATION
Netherlands
Net EU contribution
€ 430 680,00
Address
Westvest 7
2611 AX Delft

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Region
West-Nederland Zuid-Holland Delft en Westland
Activity type
Research Organisations
Other funding
€ 0,00
ECOLE NATIONALE D'INGENIEURS DE GABES
Tunisia
Net EU contribution
€ 150 000,00
Address
Omar Ibn El Khattab
6029 Zrig Gabes

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Other funding
€ 0,00
UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE

Participation ended

Chile
Net EU contribution
€ 0,00
Address
Av. Libertador Bernardo O'higgins 1058
10 Santiago
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Other funding
€ 0,00