‘Freshkeeper’ wins Implementation Award

During the BTO conference today, the BTO Implementation Award was presented to Ate Oosterhof from Vitens and Klaasjan Raat from KWR. They were behind Freshkeeper, the smart water well that ensures good fresh groundwater can continue to be obtained from aquifers prone to salinisation, by intercepting upconing brackish water and injecting it deeper into the ground. Vitens is using this smart water-extraction well in Noardburgum, at a well field that was abandoned in 1993 because of salinisation. Within the SUBSOL Horizon 2020 project, preparations are being made for full-scale application (2 million m3 freshwater per year) and the reopening of the Noardburgum well field. There is worldwide demand for and interest in the concept. “The Freshkeeper concept is a combination of different disciplines. It is groundbreaking and provides a lot of external exposure. The technique was further developed on the basis of a pilot and scaled up to full-scale application, for which there is a lot of international interest as well,” concluded the jury, which consisted of Lianne van Oord (WML), Ad de Waal Malefijt (Dunea), and Gertjan Medema and Anne Mathilde Hummelen of KWR.