Water treatment and reuse technology based on constant water quality monitoring thanks to multi-censoring and AI-Deep Learning software for the Food Industry

Project Information

FOODWATERH2020

Grant agreement ID: 889292

DOI

10.3030/889292

Project closed

EC signature date 15 November 2019

Start date 1 December 2019

End date 31 March 2020

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

VAM WATERTECH B.V.
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FOODWATERH2020 (Water treatment and reuse technology based on constant water quality monitoring thanks to multi-censoring and AI-Deep Learning software for the Food Industry)

Reporting period: 2019-12-01 to 2020-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The EU’s food industry uses more than 2,000 million m3 of fresh water every year. With water scarcity and the costs for supply and effluent disposal on the rise, the industry needs to optimise water use whilst ensuring the safety of its products and complying with an increasingly stricter regulation. Poor water quality for vegetables washing and processing promotes the growth of harmful bacteria, which can rapidly contaminate food and expose consumers to serious illnesses. Current solutions for water recycling in the industry include settling ponds, which have no effect on bacteriological contamination, and recycling industrial systems with low automation, high energy consumption and high maintenance and operating requirements. Thus, the industry is in need of a smart, autonomous solution that guarantees food safety and regulation compliance while ensuring efficient performance and reducing extra costs in maintenance and operation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During Phase 1 we defined the technical specifications of our system concerning food safety, waste reduction and system reliability and we planned the improvement of our prototype and the demonstration at our client’s sites. We calculated the necessary resources to carry out our technical plan and we defined our commercial strategy, starting with our sales strategy (direct through our commercial team and indirect through local distributors) and selling price. We established our commercial expansion strategy defining the target regions for both the launching and the expansion period and identified a good number of potential clients and partners in our target regions, while analysing our competitors and regulatory framework.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

FOODWATERH2020 is the first fully automatized, compact solution which monitors constantly the water quality due to highly precise multi-sensoring combined with an embodied AI software. Our system recovers up to 98% of process water, reduces up to 10 times the costs of food process water and removes pathogens up to 99%, providing 100% food safety. FOODWATERH2020 increases up to 54% the shelf life of food products, reduces the energy footprint by 30-35% compared to current compact solutions and the ground footprint up to 20 times compare to ponding systems. By 2025, we target cumulative revenues of €37 million thanks to a worldwide expansion of our system.

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