Revived Water

Overview

REvivED water, a research and innovation project funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme in the field of ‘low-energy solutions for drinking water’, brings together ten partners from six countries across Europe that contribute to overcoming the drinking water challenge by establishing electrodialysis (ED) as the new standard for water desalination.

Introduction

The balance between drinking water demand and water availability has reached a critical level in many regions of the world. Factors such as climate change are causing more frequent and severe droughts which exacerbate these adverse conditions. Low energy desalination solutions will be a crucial part of providing sufficient levels of good quality drinking water for a growing world population.

Project Objectives

REvivED water is a European Union funded innovation project which aims to contribute to overcoming the drinking water challenge by establishing electrodialysis (ED) as the new standard for desalination of seawater. Safe, affordable and cost-competitive drinking water will be produced; with significantly reduced energy consumption compared to state-of-the-art Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology.

Focus is on the following systems and applications:

• Electrodialyis (ED) systems: (a) Brackish water desalination in developing countries (pilot testing in Africa and Asia) and (B) Tap water softening in Europe (pilot testing in the Netehrlands and Germany)
• Multistage electrodialysis (ED) system: Industrial-scale seawater desalination (pilot testing in the Netherlands).
• Multistage electrodialysis (ED) system + Reverse electrodialysis (RED): Further reduction of energy consumption for seawater desalination (pilot testing in the Netherlands).
• Reverse Osmosis (RO) system integrated with Reverse Electrodialysis RED or electrodialysis (ED): Market intrusion ED-RO without the need to replace the extensive RO infrastructures already developed around the world (pilot testing in Spain).

Decentralized Systems for Water Supply in Developing Countries

One of the aims of the REvivED water project is to develop a brackish water desalination system based on capacitive electrodialysis (CED). The project will combine innovative design and high performing components with appropriate pre- and post-treatment techniques to enable the development of a simple and robust stand-alone system. The use of solar energy for the system’s power needs allow its application in developing countries where high-quality drinking water will be supplied to local populations in rural areas without any alternative solutions.

First systems were installed in Somaliland, Tanzania and Djibouti in 2018 and 2019.

The systems are equipped with advanced monitoring systems, which allow a full evaluation and an objective comparison of the two different configurations. The collected data will be used as input for the overall evaluation, leading to future improved designs.

The REvivED water Consortium

The REvivED water consortium is industry driven and covers the whole knowledge spectrum required for the success of the REvivED water project with experts on electrodialysis (ED)/Reverse ED technology (WetsusEuropean Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, DeukumGmbH, REDstackBV, FUJIFILMManufacturing EuropeB.V., Università degli Studi di Palermo, Ghent University), desalination and purification technology (Trunz WaterSystemsAG), contaminant removal (Ghent University), off-grid applications in developing countries (PhaesunGmbH), Knowledge Transfer and dissemination (AquaTTUETP CLG) as well as the best institute for networking in the desalination field (EDS).

 

EU Disclaimer

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement no. 685579. This output reflects the views only of the author(s), and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.