Descrizione del progetto
Migliorare l’efficienza idrica nell’industria alimentare e delle bevande
L’industria alimentare e delle bevande è uno dei settori a più alta intensità energetica e idrica al mondo, che produce inoltre volumi consistenti di rifiuti: per questo motivo vi è una richiesta elevata di fornitura di acqua dolce. Nonostante siano stati raggiunti progressi significativi nell’efficienza nell’uso dell’acqua, l’industria alimentare e delle bevande deve compiere sforzi aggiuntivi per ridurre al minimo l’utilizzo di acqua dolce durante la trasformazione di materie prime. Tuttavia, le soluzioni attuali per il trattamento delle acque reflue nelle industrie in cui vi è un nesso acqua-rifiuti-energia restano limitate. L’obiettivo del progetto AccelWater, finanziato dall’UE, è modificare tale schema e migliorare il consumo di acqua dolce nell’industria alimentare e delle bevande, concentrandosi sullo sviluppo di tecnologie innovative per la depurazione dell’acqua e il suo riutilizzo, nonché per il monitoraggio e il controllo basati sull’intelligenza artificiale.
Obiettivo
The food and drink industry is the EU's biggest manufacturing. However, this industry is one of the most water and energy intensive industries worldwide while the companies belong to that sector produce a lot of waste. Specifically, the food and beverage industry consumes 56% of the available water for industrial and urban use. Additionally, food processing embeds 28% of the total energy used for production, while the total direct energy consumed by the European food industry amounted to 28.4 Mt oil equivalent, while 30.6 Mt of food waste are produced in this industry. Although, huge steps have been made in increasing the water use efficiency through the use of modern technologies and methods, there is limited effort from the food and beverages industry to minimize freshwater use during the raw material processing. In addition, high water consumption in industrial areas lead to increased production costs due to the fact that the tariffs for public wastewater treatment can be very high in European cities as well as the industrial electricity prices can also be very high. Currently, solutions for wastewater treatment in industries include the use of clarification, membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, process water polishing, disinfection with water treatment chemicals and UV, and biological treatment technologies. However, the use of these technologies under a water-waste-energy nexus is very limited.
AccelWater’s project main objective is to optimize freshwater water consumption in the food and beverage industry under a water-waste-energy nexus by introducing beyond state-of-the-art water reclaiming, reusing and Artificial Intelligence enabled monitoring and control technologies will permit the use of reclaimed water in the manufacturing processes of food and beverages and on the same time will allow waste and energy reclamation, optimization and management, and consequently will result to environmental and socioeconomic sustainability.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligence
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineering
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesfood technology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processeswastewater treatment processes
- engineering and technologychemical engineeringseparation technologiesdesalinationreverse osmosis
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
H2020-LOW-CARBON-CIRCULAR-INDUSTRIES-2020
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoBando secondario
H2020-LCCI-2020-EASME-singlestage
Meccanismo di finanziamento
IA - Innovation actionCoordinatore
11742 Athens
Grecia
L’organizzazione si è definita una PMI (piccola e media impresa) al momento della firma dell’accordo di sovvenzione.