FCC AQUALIA SA

Their core work

FCC Aqualia is one of Spain's largest water utilities, operating drinking water supply, wastewater treatment, and desalination infrastructure at industrial scale. In H2020, they serve as a real-world testbed and technology integrator — taking lab-scale water treatment innovations (microbial desalination, advanced oxidation, resource recovery from wastewater) and validating them in operational plants. They bring deep expertise in converting urban wastewater and bio-waste streams into valuable products like fertilizers, biopolymers, and recovered energy. Their work spans the full urban water cycle, from drinking water production through sewage treatment to water reuse for agriculture.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2016-2018, Aqualia focused on specific treatment technologies — microbial desalination (MIDES), algae biorefinery (SABANA), and wastewater-to-value conversion (INCOVER) — essentially proving that waste streams could yield useful products. From 2019 onward, the focus shifted decisively toward system-level integration: smart water governance, climate resilience, circular economy, nature-based solutions, and industrial water symbiosis. The evolution is clear — from "can we extract value from wastewater?" to "how do we redesign the entire urban water cycle for sustainability and climate adaptation?"

Aqualia is moving from technology-specific R&D toward integrated water-energy-waste systems with strong emphasis on climate resilience and digital governance — expect future work in AI-driven water networks and urban climate adaptation.

How they like to work

Aqualia operates as both a leader and a committed partner — coordinating 4 of 13 projects while contributing substantially to the rest (average funding per project exceeds EUR 1M). With 207 unique partners across 30 countries, they are a major network hub in the European water innovation ecosystem. Their role is typically that of the large-scale infrastructure owner who provides real operational sites for testing, which makes them a highly attractive partner for research groups needing industrial validation.

Aqualia has built a pan-European network of 207 partners spanning 30 countries, making them one of the most connected water-sector organizations in H2020. Their partnerships bridge academic research groups, technology SMEs, and fellow utilities across Southern, Western, and Northern Europe.

What sets them apart

Aqualia's key differentiator is scale: as a major operational water utility, they can take innovations from TRL 4-5 and validate them in real treatment plants serving real cities — something most research partners cannot offer. Their portfolio uniquely spans the entire wastewater-to-value chain, from nutrient recovery to bioplastics to smart grid management. For consortium builders, Aqualia brings both the infrastructure for demonstration and the commercial pathway for market uptake — they don't just test technologies, they can actually deploy them.

Highlights from their portfolio

• REWAISE
  Their largest project (EUR 3.9M as coordinator), signaling a strategic commitment to smart water economy and climate resilience at city scale.
• DEEP PURPLE
  Coordinator of an ambitious photobiorefinery project converting mixed urban bio-waste into biopolymers, fertilizers, and cellulose — a full circular economy demonstrator.
• MIDES
  Early coordinator project on microbial desalination for low-energy drinking water — a technology bet that positioned Aqualia in next-generation desalination.