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bIo-mimetic and phyto-techNologies DesIgned for low-cost purficAtion and recycling of water

Project description

Cleaning wastewater through osmosis

Used in nature for a long time – by plants, trees and human cells – forward osmosis is today considered a promising technology for wastewater treatment. It involves the transport of water molecules across a semi-permeable membrane. The EU-funded INDIA-H20 project will develop and demonstrate novel batch-reverse osmosis technology for high-recovery, low-cost water treatment. For rural domestic water treatment, the new system will remove salinity and emerging pollutants like agricultural chemicals. For industrial wastewater in textile, desalination and dairy, the project will develop a cost-effective hybrid technology for recycling with minimum liquid discharge. The project will test its technologies in India’s arid state of Gujarat where surface water resources are scarce. Policy briefs on economic models and governance agreements will be disseminated.

Objective

INDIA-H20 will develop, design and demonstrate high-recovery, low-cost water treatment systems for saline groundwater and industrial wastewaters. The focus for developments will be in the arid state of Gujarat, where surface water resources are very scarce. We will develop novel batch-reverse osmosis technology for a 10-fold reduction in specific energy consumption with high fractions of water recovery (80%) reducing /m3 operating costs to below 0.35/m3 (<30 rupees/m3). Forward osmosis will be developed and piloted for use in wastewater recovery applications including hybrid arrangements with reverse osmosis for further reduction in energy consumption. These solutions will be demonstrated in small-scale rurally relevant low-cost systems for brackish groundwater treatment for use as safe drinking water, which will be extended to include phyto-technology solutions for rural domestic wastewater treatment. Systems will remove salinity and emerging pollutants (e.g. agricultural chemicals), valorise rejected brines in halophytic crop cultivation. For specific industrial wastewater in textile, desalination and dairy we will develop and demonstrate cost-effective high-efficiency hybrid technologies for water recycling with minimum liquid discharge, using advanced membrane technologies to achieve the required water quality for recycling. A centre of excellence will be established in water treatment membrane technologies, design operation and monitoring. Activities such as supply chain mapping and EU India collaboration on developing industrial scale forward osmosis membranes and batch-RO systems will support the development of business models to exploit the developed solutions to mutual EU/India economic advantage. We will analyse and produce policy briefs on economic models and governance arrangements for viable adoption of the developed systems.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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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.

RIA - Research and Innovation action

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SC5-2018-2019-2020

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Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 657 859,50
Address
Edgbaston
B15 2TT Birmingham
United Kingdom

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Region
West Midlands (England) West Midlands Birmingham
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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.

€ 721 962,50

Participants (20)

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