A drop of water falls from a melting icicle into a puddle in Pomaz, 20 kms north of Budapest, Hungary. EFE/EPA/ATTILA KOVACS

ACCIONA launches a Life project to reduce energy consumption in water purification

January 11, 2016.- The initiative has been selected by the European Union to be part of the Life program, “to be the spearhead of Environmental policy “spearhead of the environmental policy” of Brussels, which is intended to support and develop all RD&I plans with the greatest potential in the Environmental sector, reports ACCIONA.

The aim of this project, which will be carried out over the next three years, with an investment close to 1 million Euros, goes through the development and testing of unconventional water purification technologies that allow a significant reduction in energy consumption in this type of processes.

Higher efficiency, less emissions

The energy savings will be achieved through two ways: on the one hand, through the use of anaerobic technologies, which require less oxygen supply than that used during current treatments and, on the other hand, thanks to the average temperature of residual waters in temperate climates and thus the extreme heating required in other purification processes can be avoided.

This technology will also allow the reduction of greenhouse gases’ emissions, associated with water treatment, in an amount of 0.163 kg of CO2 per cubic meter of treated water.

The first phase of Life Celsius includes the design and construction of a pilot plant in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula, whose climate is considered “optimal for harnessing the potential of new processes”.

Subsequently, the technology will be applied to real scale in the water treatment plants operated by ACCIONA AGUA in warm climate areas both in the Mediterranean basin as in other parts of the globe: North Africa, Middle East and desert zones of America.

EFE’s contribution

EFE International News Agency participates in this Project, transmitting to society the successive progress of this initiative as well as the importance of the water cycle itself.

EFE’s news items will be diffused through its environmental journalism platform EFEVERDE, “meeting point of the sectors concerned with environment and committed journalism”, with biodiversity, renewable energy and sustainable development or with the use of water itself.

ACCIONA AGUA recalls that “it is a world leader” in the efficient management of this “limited and scarce” natural resource, which in recent years has been a source of conflicts around the planet, precisely due of its scarcity.

 

Traducción: Carmen Gilson

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