WATER AND TECHNOLOGY
1O Innovative Challenges
How can we transform data into better planning and management?
1
Today, innovation in water sanitation and treatment is essential to address the environmental, social and economic challenges of the present and future.
Improving environmental sustainability involves reducing the impact of wastewater treatment plants by minimizing discharges and making efficient use of resources. This includes adopting technologies to eliminate emerging pollutants, such as microplastics or pharmaceuticals, which conventional wastewater treatment plants are not currently equipped to do.
Compliance with increasingly stringent regulations requires the incorporation of advanced processes that guarantee the high quality of treated water to be returned to the environment or for reuse in urban, agricultural or industrial activities.
In turn, it is key to promote the circular economy, converting the by-products of the purification process, such as sludge, into valuable resources such as fertilizers or renewable energy.
The incorporation of measures within the framework of the circular economy is the key to obtaining different resources through the integral water cycle. Thus, implementing technologies that allow extracting added value from the treatment and distribution processes is essential for the optimization, sustainability and efficiency of the water cycle processes.
The objective pursued in the Inno4H2O innovation ecosystem is to promote collaboration between companies, universities, technology centers and public administrations, in short, the entire value chain, offering solutions to the current challenges of the water sector, promoting public-private collaboration and knowledge transfer. All this, to achieve a more sustainable water management, adapted to current and future needs.
2
How to reuse the resources of a supply system towards a sustainable water circular economy context?
The anthropization of the water cycle accelerates the natural processes of water supply. The treatment of raw water in drinking water treatment plants and the regulated distribution of drinking water are milestones that enable the development of human life in the welfare state. However, the lack of resources and the continuous economic upward trend of these resources make the sustainability and resilience of water systems very difficult. Therefore, under the application of circular economy policies, distribution networks and water treatment processes offer key opportunities to address this problem, through the implementation of actions within the framework of reuse and recovery of resources.
In the current context of water scarcity, the application of innovative technologies for water reuse is of particular interest. In addition, both European and national regulations seek to promote reuse as a priority strategy.
On the other hand, the recently published Regulation of the Public Hydraulic Domain (RDPH) obliges certain municipalities to control their discharges and overflows, and to draw up Integrated Management Plans for the Sanitation System (PIGSS).
Participation in this project allows us to aim at achieving fundamental objectives such as energy efficiency and waste reduction in the treatment process. In this way, from EMIVASA, it is intended to provide and increase solutions that allow distribution network operators to achieve the following objectives:
- Validation of technologies for energy recovery in distribution networks.
- Valorization of waste from drinking water treatment (sludge).
- Validation of sensors for detection of specific contaminants
How to create a sustainable circular water economy?
3
In a context of climatic crisis that leads to a decrease in available water resources and their quality, coupled with periods of prolonged droughts, floods and pollution of water bodies, we have to work hard to ensure the supply of water demands of our society to maintain the economic, social and environmental level of our environment.
The incorporation of measures within the framework of the circular economy is the key to obtaining different resources through the integral water cycle. Thus, implementing technologies that allow extracting added value from the treatment and distribution processes is essential for the optimization, sustainability and efficiency of the water cycle processes.
The objective pursued in the Inno4H2O innovation ecosystem is to promote collaboration between companies, universities, technology centers and public administrations, in short, the entire value chain, offering solutions to the current challenges of the water sector, promoting public-private collaboration and knowledge transfer. All this, to achieve a more sustainable water management, adapted to current and future needs.
4
How can we optimize the management of distribution and sanitation networks using ICT technologies to reduce costs and increase efficiency while ensuring quality?
The geopolitical situation, the European policies related to the Green Deal establish a framework in which both water and energy efficiency are two pillars to contribute to the sustainability of the resource, to decarbonization.
In addition, working to achieve a good state of maintenance of drinking water and sanitation networks, as well as their optimization from the water point of view, not only contributes to reducing the impact in terms of energy, but also to the sustainability of the resource.
In this context, the most relevant opportunities are:
- In drinking water networks: depression regulation based on DMAs and demand forecast analysis
- In sewage networks: reduction of infiltrations optimization of pumping
- In sewage and drinking water networks: utilization of potential energy
The objective is to offer data-intensive solutions to achieve maximum performance of distribution and sanitation networks with the lowest environmental impact.
How can we transform data into better planning and management?
5
In a context of climatic crisis that leads to a decrease in available water resources and their quality, coupled with periods of prolonged droughts, floods and pollution of water bodies, we have to work hard to ensure the supply of water demands of our society to maintain the economic, social and environmental level of our environment.
The incorporation of measures within the framework of the circular economy is the key to obtaining different resources through the integral water cycle. Thus, implementing technologies that allow extracting added value from the treatment and distribution processes is essential for the optimization, sustainability and efficiency of the water cycle processes.
The objective pursued in the Inno4H2O innovation ecosystem is to promote collaboration between companies, universities, technology centers and public administrations, in short, the entire value chain, offering solutions to the current challenges of the water sector, promoting public-private collaboration and knowledge transfer. All this, to achieve a more sustainable water management, adapted to current and future needs.
6
How can AI improve the efficiency of water systems in real time?
Efficient water management is a critical challenge in an environment where the climate crisis and population growth are increasing pressure on water resources. Water distribution, collection and treatment systems face problems such as leakage losses, excessive energy consumption and lack of capacity to adapt quickly to changes in demand or emergencies. Traditional solutions are not always able to respond with the speed and accuracy required by today’s circumstances.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers a disruptive approach to managing the entire water cycle in real time. AI-based tools, such as predictive models and optimization algorithms, can identify leaks, anticipate peak demand, and adjust the energy consumption of systems, ensuring efficiency and sustainability. In addition, AI can be integrated with IoT sensors and data analytics platforms to provide a holistic and dynamic view of the water system.
The objective of this challenge is to implement AI-based technologies to optimize the efficiency of water systems in real time, improving the sustainability and resilience of the water cycle. This includes early leak detection, optimizing energy consumption by adjusting to demand, and providing advanced tools for faster and more informed decision making, reducing waste and maximizing resource utilization.
How can we guarantee the correct functioning of sanitation networks with NLP or Augmented Reality technologies?
7
Sanitation networks should be seen as the part of a wastewater management system that should be oriented to contribute to its sustainability.
In this context, two aspects are particularly relevant to the role played by networks:
- As a backbone infrastructure that must be efficient from a hydraulic, energy and environmental point of view.
- As an infrastructure to be integrated into centralized and decentralized management approaches
The above context raises three scenarios of opportunity:
Firstly, the use of internal information of the companies and entities in charge of their management. NLP technology can facilitate the processing of qualitative information related to the description of incidents, facilitating the development of causal analysis and the establishment of mitigation policies.
Secondly, optimization in the identification of solutions. NLP technology, whether or not combined with generative AI technologies, can facilitate the use of traditional, or novel, solution catalogs from both centralized and decentralized approach domains.
And finally, knowledge transfer. The use of augmented reality techniques can be employed for infrastructure virtualization, adding value, for example, to BIM information, but also to facilitate asset management and employee training.
Our purpose is to contribute to the productivity of the maintenance and management processes of sanitation networks through the return of experience and/or corporate knowledge transfer based on Natural Language and Artificial Vision techniques.
8
How can we optimize water and energy efficiency in distribution and sanitation networks?
Efficient water management is a critical challenge in an environment where the climate crisis and population growth are increasing pressure on water resources. Water distribution, collection and treatment systems face problems such as leakage losses, excessive energy consumption and lack of capacity to adapt quickly to changes in demand or emergencies. Traditional solutions are not always able to respond with the speed and accuracy required by today’s circumstances.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers a disruptive approach to managing the entire water cycle in real time. AI-based tools, such as predictive models and optimization algorithms, can identify leaks, anticipate peak demand, and adjust the energy consumption of systems, ensuring efficiency and sustainability. In addition, AI can be integrated with IoT sensors and data analytics platforms to provide a holistic and dynamic view of the water system.
The objective of this challenge is to implement AI-based technologies to optimize the efficiency of water systems in real time, improving the sustainability and resilience of the water cycle. This includes early leak detection, optimizing energy consumption by adjusting to demand, and providing advanced tools for faster and more informed decision making, reducing waste and maximizing resource utilization.
How can we energetically optimize the purification and treatment processes while ensuring operational efficiency?
9
The geopolitical situation, the European policies related to the Green Deal establish a framework in which water and energy efficiency are two pillars to contribute to the sustainability of the resource, its decarbonization and the reduction of the impact on climate change.
In this context, one of the work opportunities lies in the optimization of water treatment and purification processes by means of defined control strategies facilitated by numerical modeling, Artificial Intelligence and hybrid techniques.
Our aim is to offer control strategies for drinking water treatment and treatment processes oriented to facilitate their energy and operational efficiency through solutions based on the intensive use of digital technologies (numerical, data-driven and/or hybrid modeling).
10
How can we integrate renewable energy generation solutions into the integrated water cycle?
The geopolitical situation, the European policies related to the Green Deal establish a framework in which water and energy efficiency are two pillars to contribute to the sustainability of the resource, its decarbonization and the reduction of the impact on climate change.
It is time to contribute to decarbonization and optimization of water cycle operating costs through the integration of renewable energies.
Our objective is to solve this challenge by providing simulation, emulation and impact services of the behavior of renewable energies as a substitute or complement to conventional networks in different installations throughout the water cycle (treatment, pumping or others).
