Project description
Enhancing water production and valorising brine from reverse osmosis
Water is required for many industrial processes, and it is a critical component of almost all aspects of production in the food industry. Obtaining high-purity water is often accomplished with reverse osmosis, but one quarter of the end result is brine co-product. More sustainable use of water is urgently needed. The Spanish SME Useful Wastes has developed technology for the reuse of reverse osmosis rejection, increasing useful water production to 95 % – 97 % and transforming the rest into valuable by-products for a circular economy. The EU-funded USEFUL WASTES project is helping the team optimise the technology and prepare its business plan for commercialisation.
Objective
USEFUL WASTES is a new company that has developed an innovative technology that allows the complete reutilization of brines from reverse osmosis process in food industry, transforming this waste into different valuable byproducts.
Reverse osmosis is widely used to treat water in food industry due to the water quality requirements when it is used to clean, freeze or cook food, obtaining 75% of high quality water and 25% of brine that is discarded.
With the aim of reducing this waste of water USEFUL WASTES was founded in 2016, and its main strengths are:
- Improvement in water production, from the current 75% to 95-97%;
- Circular economy: the remaining 1% is transformed into different valuable byproducts, such as bleach, salts or hydrogen gas;
- Bleach self-production: this product is massively used in the food industry for cleaning and disinfection. Its production as a byproduct will allow the company not only to reduce costs but also to not be dependent on bleach suppliers.
But most of all, the main advantage of USEFUL WASTES that guarantees its success is that it is profitable. Operating costs are smaller than the cost associated to bleach purchase (estimated savings are 4c€ per litre), without taking into account the savings obtained in water supply (22-24% of water that was being discarded is now transformed into fresh and soft water).
Regarding the main competitors, brine management sector is completely dedicated to solving the problem caused by desalination plants’ brines, potentially dangerous for the marine ecosystems where they are discharged due to its high content in nitrates, so there are no solutions in the market targeting food industry.
During phase 1, USEFUL WASTES will elaborate a detailed business plan which will set the strategy to commercialize successfully
its innovation all over Europe.
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 water treatment processes drinking water treatment processes
- engineering and technology chemical engineering separation technologies desalination reverse osmosis
- social sciences economics and business economics sustainable economy
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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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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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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.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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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) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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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.
30203 NAVARRA
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
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.