REsilient WAter Innovation for Smart Economy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REWAISE (REsilient WAter Innovation for Smart Economy)

Período documentado: 2020-09-01 hasta 2022-02-28

The Project:
REWAISE will create a new “smart water ecosystem”, integrating an intelligent digital framework for decentralised water services and decision-making, involving all relevant stakeholders to embrace the true value of water, reducing freshwater and energy use, and recovering nutrients and materials. The results will be a carbon-free, sustainable hydrological cycle in line with the concept of a resilient circular economy.

REWAISE reveals the full Value of Water, considering three key, sought-after technical, economic and social factors:

*) value in water: by extracting minerals from seawater brine, recovering nutrients from wastewater, and converting all organic matter and biomass into energy
*) value from water: developing the business of sustainable services and innovative products along the entire water cycle, working with start-ups and SMEs to give them privileged access to large utility users
*) value through water: generating social wellbeing through stakeholder participation and new governance procedures that maximise the positive effects of innovation on users and the environment
With Living Labs as a springboard to enhance social engagement, REWAISE will boost new business models, adapt normative barriers and develop common digital tools in a holistic approach seeking a water-smart society.

The 9 living labs, grouped into 3 hubs (Mediterranean, Atlantic and Continental) will demonstrate real-world technological innovation business models and new governance methods that will contribute to a secure water supply for Europe. The concepts will be scalable and replicable to other municipalities and utilities across EU and the world, fostering the transition towards resilient and smart water services.

The Consortium: REWAISE comprises 25 European entities from Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

At this stage, the project has deployed its first pilots to tackle key issues in improving water management efficiency. Organised as Living Labs (LLs) across Europe, each demo site, as a unique case study, develops specific solutions as follows:

Since the initiative’s inception, REWAISE entities have been forging a framework for decentralised water services, involving all relevant stakeholders with a view to achieving a sustainable water cycle and extracting the value of water from the initial demonstrative activities:

The Skaane LL has already implemented various activities to recover resources. The first is an ultrafiltration pilot for roof-based rainwater harvesting installed in a public urban area with an underground storage of 100 m3. The pilot aims to reuse water for irrigation with a focus on the removal of microplastics and micropollutants. Also, VASYD have built a storage reservoir in the pipe network connected to a large green area in the park Sege Park. Another pilot unit at the WWTP Källby (Lund) has been installed. It is in operation for the task on Ideal Carbon Utilisation (ICU). In addition, the VASYD building in Malmö now boasts the urine separation toilet prototype installed and monitored to produce a new dry and safe fertiliser.

In the Galicia LL, after a successful pilot commissioning of an anaerobic bioreactor treating 1 m3/day in Vigo, the design of a demo unit for sewer mining has been completed. It has a treating capacity by 55 m3/day of wastewater from a local car factory The unit is capable of repurposing water for cooling, washing, and processing, transforming organic matter into biogas and also recovering nutrients for fertigation. The degassing membrane system designed by AQUA was installed for dissolved methane recovery. On the other hand, CETIM completed electrochemical tests of release and capture of lithium using cathodes of spent batteries and synthetic brines were carried out.

The Midlands LL is implementing network modelling and control sensors, to reduce distribution leaks and prevent flooding in collection systems. The integrated leakage approach is across a range of smaller projects underway: The No-dig Repair; the Leakage Detection Robotics (FIDO); The Smart Meter data ; The Fibre for Leak Detection, and; The Valve Actuators. Other ongoing research tasks were undertaken: i) Anode materials for ammonia oxidation reaction based on several anode tests; ii) Anion exchange membranes (AEMs) for ammonia electrolysis, and iii) Pathway to 100 cm2 lab electrolyser.

Moreover, preliminary results were obtained from other LLs:

In Denia LL, Spain, AQUA and APOR have equipped a reverse osmosis pilot plant with the novel APOR membranes, to purify freshwater with lower energy consumption. Firsts test with a drinking water membrane will be done in the last quarter of 2022.

In Extremadura LL, Spain, preliminary samples have been collected from the reservoirs Villar del Rey in Badajoz and Voltoya in Ávila, Samples from the outlet of the drinking water plant and from the reservoir have been taken and analysed. During this year no algal blooms have yet been identified in either of the two reservoirs, nevertheless the samples were analysed in the laboratory to discard cyanotoxins.

The REWAISE IT platform is being developed to establish a common framework of digital innovation for supporting alternative water management strategies. Initial efforts are focusing on separate modelling of reservoirs and algae formation, a drinking water treatment plant and distribution system, sewage network and wastewater treatment plants to optimise operations before integrating the different modules.

In this sense, impact assessment is crucial for REWAISE. Over thirty (30) KPIs have been identified and categorised in different groups to benchmark project progress, namely technical, environmental, economic, and social key performance indicators. Having figures on carbon footprint, water scarcity and human toxicity will be useful for measuring the technical merits, while the number of market briefs, communication impacts, and economic analysis will assess the commercial value of the most promising technologies.

In this context, engagement tasks made its first advances. For this, five maps of key stakeholders have been developed to analyse the community and civil context of the five LLs. At this stage, these LL provide mature networks (Vigo, Midlands, Skaane, Poznan, and Denia), to establish dialogues through hub-based competency groups. Sociological interviews have been conducted with them as a first step to consult other stakeholders afterwards, and factsheets generated and distributed among REWAISE partners, to share specific information related to each LL. The first version of the Handbook of the LLs methodology has been launched and uploaded to REWAISE website.

All this progress is coordinated with the other four EU co-funded initiatives within H2020 SC5-04-2019 call, grouped in a cluster baptised as Circular Smart Economy for Water (CIRSEAU). Five working groups were created to identify common methodologies. Moreover, joint sessions were also held with the European Research Executive Agency (REA) to garner policy feedback for water directives.

Finally, REWAISE is active posting the most recent events and advances on rewaise.eu

At this stage, no relevant outputs have been consolidated. Technology feasibility and assessment will be analysed in coming Reporting Periods. Potential impacts are considered based on impacts addressed in GA

Rewaise roll up - Living Labs map

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REWAISE (REsilient WAter Innovation for Smart Economy)

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