The first meeting of associated partners of the EERES4WATER project took place remotely, through digital platforms, and served to present the technical progress during the first year of execution.
In this project, the University of Évora (Portugal) is coordinating activities related to the development of more sustainable technologies for water management systems, such as wave-driven desalination, wastewater treatment by solar photocatalysis, floating solar platforms for water pumping, supplying photovoltaic energy to desalination plants, and energy recovery using microturbines.
The French partner Campus E.S.P.R.I.T. Industries (GIP-Redon) has carried out a feasibility study to improve the energy efficiency of the filling and emptying processes of drinking water tanks. This study aims to optimize the energy flows that take place in pressure regulation systems. In a first analysis, for a specific location in Brittany, it revealed a savings potential of 40,000 kWh/year, through the proper use of energy flows.
In Spain, the Canary Islands Institute (ITC) has carried out a review of the most efficient reverse osmosis desalination plants which has included an energy consumption breakdown and optimization opportunities. This information will allow the design of a reverse osmosis rack for desalination plants with high energy efficiency criteria. The University of Seville also assessed the opportunities to increase energy efficiency in desalination plants by adopting processes based on salinity gradient, namely pressure-delayed osmosis and reverse electrodialysis.
The Cardiff University team has been working on improving modeling fecal indicator organisms (FIOs) in coastal and riverine waters, by improving the representation of the FIOs sources and improving the decay processes of FIOs in the natural environment.
All these advances will reduce the environmental impact of the water cycle processes, improving the technical framework for the incorporating of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The EERES4WATER project is coordinated by Technological Corporation of Andalusian (CTA) and co-financed by the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme through the European Regional Development Fund.
The project consortium includes 11 organisations from these 5 European countries. From Spain, CTA, University of Seville, CIEMAT-PSA, Canary Islands Institute of Technology (ITC) and Brinergy Tech. Ireland has two representatives: University College Cork (UCC) - MaREI and Resolute Marine (RML), as well as Portugal, which has ENERAREA and the University of Évora – Chair in Renewable Energy. The UK partner is Cardiff University and the French is Campus E.S.P.R.I.T. Industries (GIP-Redon).
