AquaSPICE: Implementation of circular water use in the European process industry

KWR is a partner in the AquaSPICE project consortium. We are leading an entire Work Package, implementing a few key tasks and supporting many others. On the first day, the meeting began officially with an opening speech from Thomas Wintgens of RWTH Aachen, the coordinator of the project. It was followed by a series of presentations focusing on an overview of the case studies, at which the visions and ambitions of individual case studies were shared and discussed. It was particularly interesting to hear about the progress made in all six case studies and how they are overcoming the challenges involved in their implementation, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and shortages of materials. In addition, key milestones and activities for the coming months were discussed.

General Assembly of AquaSPICE in Athens Centre of Entrepreneurship and Innovations, Greece

On the second day, Johann Poinapen from KWR presented the planned activities and key outcomes of the various tasks implemented in Work Package 1: Water Efficiency Enhancement Applications Framework. He elaborated on the many aspects of industrial water use, recovery, treatment and re-use, as well as on the different water sources. He also discussed the opportunities for re-using treated water in different closed water loops, synergising and integrating the tasks and activities of the AquaSPICE project.

Another highlight of the event was the launch of the AquaSPICE Young Professional Group, a networking group initiated by Chuan Jiet Teo from KWR to bring together the young professionals involved in different water themes (circular, process and digital), helping to realise industrial water circularity through the voice and action of the younger generations. A total of seventeen participants from the project signed up for the network group.

The first informal meet-up of the AquaSPICE Young Professionals who attended the meeting in person.

As a project consortium, we look forward to the project review meeting in August, which will be held at one of our case study locations, DOW in the Terneuzen Industrial Park.

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. : 958396