18 partners from 11 countries have joined forces to form a consortium of organisations to create MEloDIZER, a project funded under the Horizon Europe framework and coordinated by Politecnico di Turin (Polytechnic University of Turin). The topic of the project is membrane distillation, a very promising technology for both the desalination of high salinity waters and the reuse and valorisation of industrial wastewaters. At present, the full potential of this technology is hampered by the lack of high-performance membranes and membrane modules, the environmental impact of their production and use, as well as their implementation in unsuitable configurations and environments.
The main aim is to create a new generation of membranes and modules with green and readily scalable approaches. At the same time, these core innovative membrane and module components will be integrated with energy and control systems that will maximise their performance and enable the smart utilisation of renewable energy. The performance of the next-generation membrane components in the overall system, will be validated for the reduction of industrial waste streams (including aquaculture), the reuse of water, the extraction of resources, as well as the production of drinking water by decentralised and diffuse human-scale Membrane Distillation (MD) units.
The implementation of the innovative membrane components and the resulting improved MD technology will hopefully produce economic and environmental benefits, and at the same time provide sustainable end-of-life management of membrane components and systems. The ambition of the project is therefore to contribute to three of the strategic objectives of the European Union and worldwide, namely, the sustainable use of water resources – both at an industrial level and in small communities, access to critical raw materials, and the transition to processes powered by renewable energy.
In the MEloDIZER project, AquaBioTech Group will participate:
- In the valorization of waste streams and provide wastewater for use in demo sites to determine the possibility of nutrient recovery (targeting P & N).
- In the training and use of the prototype filtration system.
- In the provision of data for Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Cost Analysis, techno-economic assessment, business cases, market opportunities and regulation assessment.
- Co-lead the training and capacity-building task.
The MEloDIZER project kick-off meeting took place at the Politecnico di Turin (Polytechnic University of Turin), Turin-Italy on the 30th and 31st of January 2023. On the agenda, there were two days of discussion and presentations from the 18 partners from across Europe and Israel regarding the project, the innovations, the commitments of the partners, the timetables and the future activities within the MEloDIZER framework, along with a tour in the labs of the Politecnico.
Stay tuned, more coming soon on the project!
