What does it cost to treat water with this technology?+
The cooling tower blowdown treatment unit demonstrated a cost of 0.30€/m³ with over 99% water recovery. For metal plating wastewater, the system recovers valuable metals (chromium, copper, nickel) that offset treatment costs. Exact ROI depends on your water intake costs, discharge fees, and metal prices.
Can this scale to my factory's water volumes?+
The project built units at 25 m³/day (metal plating) and 100 m³/day (power plant and mining applications). These are industrial pilot scales designed as building blocks — multiple units can be combined for higher throughput. The TRL8 metal plating unit was designed for full commercial deployment.
Who owns the intellectual property and can I license this?+
The consortium of 21 partners across 8 countries includes 12 industrial partners and 5 SMEs. IP is likely shared among consortium members. Contact the coordinator (NCSR Demokritos, Greece) or the specific industrial partners for licensing discussions on individual components like membranes, sensors, or control software.
Is this technology proven or still experimental?+
Three case studies were demonstrated at real industrial sites: a TRL7 unit at a PPC power plant in Megalopolis, Greece; a TRL8 unit at BIA GmbH electroplating facility in Solingen, Germany; and an integrated RED/MD pilot in Castellgali, Spain. These are fully operational systems, not lab experiments.
How does the smart monitoring system work?+
The project developed customized sensors for parameters like Fe²⁺, SO₄²⁺, and Cl⁻, integrated with conventional sensors for pressure, temperature, conductivity, and turbidity. Machine learning software on a cloud-based platform enables real-time process adaptation and automated decision-making, reducing the need for constant human oversight.
What kind of membranes were developed?+
The project delivered nanofiltration membranes achieving 50 LMH water flux with over 98% salt rejection at 5 bar, plus PVDF-based membranes for membrane distillation (100 m² produced, minimum 20 LMH water flux, over 99.5% salt rejection). Optimized tubular ultrafiltration modules were also delivered for the case studies.
Does this comply with zero liquid discharge regulations?+
Yes, the project specifically targeted zero liquid discharge across all three case studies. The cooling tower treatment unit achieved over 99% recovery, and the metal plating unit recovers metals while preserving 65% of fresh water. This positions the technology well for increasingly strict industrial discharge regulations in the EU.
