Eco-friendly and scalable seawater desalination container to secure water supply for agriculture and food production in the Mediterranean area

Objective

The total global water demand is expected to rise by 35–60% until 2025 compared to the level of the year 2000, and could then double by 2050. Already today, Europe’s Mediterranean regions suffer from water scarcity and thereof foremost the food sector, accounting for 80% of freshwater demand while representing a decisive economic factor in that regions. Depending strongly on secure and sustainable water supply, green technologies for water treatment are needed to safeguard its economic prosperity. Against this background WTS has developed an innovative, energy-efficient and sustainable technology for decentralised seawater desalination to generate high-quality potable water cost-efficiently (by using special high performance heat exchanger technology) and environmentally-friendly (using waste heat as energy input and avoiding salt pollution). The system provided in a sea container is portable and easily scalable imitating a weather-like cycle. The WTS solution is advantageous related to state of the art technology w.r.t. energy use, environmental burden and costs. The key market application is decentralized water production for users or user groups with the need to consume water directly on site but face limitation on available freshwater resources (due to large distances or over-exploitation). The idea is to offer small-scale, distributed desalination for the extraction of raw water from saline water sources for 1) drinking water production and 2) process water production. It will be viable to use the WTS technology in Mediterranean coastal areas and islands. The global capacity of desalination plants is expected to grow with a CAGR of 11%. The project helps safeguard sustainability and secure food production in the Mediterranean countries and other water stressed regions. Objective is to assess the technical feasibility of Water4Food in relevant industrial environment as well as the economic justification in the first target markets (Greece, Cyprus, Malta).

Fields of science

• engineering and technology › environmental engineering › water treatment processes › drinking water treatment processes
• engineering and technology › environmental engineering › energy and fuels › renewable energy
• engineering and technology › chemical engineering › separation technologies › desalination › reverse osmosis
• natural sciences › earth and related environmental sciences › environmental sciences › pollution
• engineering and technology › chemical engineering › separation technologies › distillation

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.3.2. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy Main Programme
• H2020-EU.3.2.4. - Sustainable and competitive bio-based industries and supporting the development of a European bioeconomy
• H2020-EU.3.2.1. - Sustainable agriculture and forestry
• H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
• H2020-EU.3.2.2. - Sustainable and competitive agri-food sector for a safe and healthy diet

Topic(s)

• SMEInst-07-2016-2017 - Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for sustainable and competitive agriculture, forestry, agri-food and bio-based sectors

Call for proposal

H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017

Funding Scheme

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

Coordinator

WATAS WARMETAUSCHER SACHSEN GMBH

Net EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Address

Lindenstrasse 5
09526 Olbernhau
Germany

Region

Sachsen › Chemnitz › Erzgebirgskreis

Activity type

Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)

Links

Other funding

€ 21 429,00