Projectes de l'ICRA

Land use and climate change aggravate pressures on surface water bodies and water supply sources, especially in the south of the EU, causing that drinking water is commonly produced from surface waters receiving wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent, a rarely questioned practice also called de facto potable water reuse. However, despite mounting international evidence of safely conducted potable reuse, recent European water reuse legislation did not regulate this end-use, and there is a clear lack of guidance in Spain and the European Union to address water quality concerns related to this important opportunity to enhance our portfolio of water management options.Planned potable reuse is a sustainable and economic alternative to seawater desalination and long-distance water transport. Ensuring water supply security is strongly connected to economic prosperity, energy and food safety, and industrial productivity and employment. In cities, water supply security is required to promote blue-green, livable and competitive cities.
reclaimONEwater assembles a cross-disciplinary team of engineers, chemists and microbiologists that will for de facto and planned potable reuse
(i) evaluate water quality hazards caused by chemical and biological contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) including disinfection byproducts and antibiotic resistance genes. This will be achieved by sampling full-scale drinking water plants impacted by WWTP effluents and a pilot-plant trial for potable reuse. This new knowledge will protect consumers from health threats in de facto and planned potable reuse;
(ii) develop and showcase at pilot-scale novel monitoring methods supporting safe operation. These will monitor across successive treatment barriers chemical and viral surrogates indigenous to treated effluent, such as natural virus NV2247 and dissolved organic matter. Efficiently monitoring true removal values for viruses in RO and other processes will increase water safety and avoid excessive, unsustainable treatment strategies;
(iii) validate on lab-scale and in a globally unique pilot plant a novel advanced oxidation process (AOP) based on vacuum UV (VUV) radiation. reclaimONEwater will evaluate process performance and validate process design adapted to the low transmission of VUV. VUV AOP will thus potentially become validated as an effective treatment barrier towards CECs, specifically suited to inland situations, where brine generation restricts the application of separation processes;
(iv) reclaimONEwater will communicate effectively to general, professional and scientific communities nationally and internationally using diverse channels such as social media, webinars and a workshop besides standard dissemination of results in scientific manuscripts and conferences in academia. To increase and fasttrack impact, reclaimONEwater will also explore the commercialization opportunities, specifically of different monitoring approaches developed in the project.
By enabling potable reuse, reclaimONEwater contributes importantly to achieving several goals of the Green Transition: (i) climate change adaptation; (ii) sustainable use and protection of hydric resources; (iii) transitioning towards a circular economy; and (iv) prevention and control of environmental contamination.