El 18 de Septiembre tuvo lugar la Conferencia final del proyecto Europeo SANITAS, donde sus integrantes presentaron los principales resultados del proyecto. ACCIONA Agua, socio del mismo, presentó sus resultados sobre optimización de tecnologías de reutilización de aguas. El evento tuvo como título “From Science to Policy”, y estaba enfocado a la aplicación de los avances conseguidos a las políticas europeas en materia de tratamiento de aguas. El proyecto está financiado por la Comisión Europea y forma parte de las acciones Marie Curie, que fomentan la excelencia en la investigación a nivel europeo.

1. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
SANITAS
Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
Towards a safe wastewater reuse:
innovating in wastewater
reclamation
SANITAS Final Conference
18 September 2015, Barcelona
Teresa de la Torre
& Marina Arnaldos
Acciona Agua, R&D Department

2. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
Introduction
• >3 Billion people will live under water stress in 2025 (Valladares et al., 2014)
• EIP Water: 8 priority areas, with 5 thematic priorities:
– Water reuse and recycling
– Water and wastewater treatment
– Water-energy nexus
– Flood and drought risk management
– Ecosystem services
• Barriers to water reuse: public perception, legislation, infrastructure,
economical… but also technological:
– Robustness
– Energy consumption
are still not convincing the end-users
Need for robust technologies that produce safe reclaimed
water at competitive prices

3. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
SANITAS approach
• 2 different approaches:
– Improvement of existing technologies:
Membrane bioreactor optimization (MBR)
– Development of emerging technologies:
Forward osmosis MBR

4. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
Membrane Bioreactor (MBRs)
Robust, Low Footprint Process
Suited for Water Reuse Purposes:
-No patogens
-No suspended solids
-Low turbidity
High Energy Cost Membrane
aeration for fouling control
(Adapted from Judd, 2011)
(Adapted from Krzeminski, 2013)
Energy consumption
Operational costs

5. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
MBR optimization
• Three actions for MBR operational costs reduction:
– Large bubble cap sparging
– Optimal operational point
– Expert control system:
• Adaptation of the aeration to the real-time conditions of the plant
• Modelling and calibration performed during SANITAS
• Control system implemented in the demo plant: LIFE-BRAINYMEM project
(www.life-brainymem.com)

6. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
MBR optimization results
>1 year operation Almuñécar MBR demonstration plant:
0.71 kWh/m3 0.25 kWh/m3 0.16 kWh/m3
0.14 kWh/m3
Large bubble
Cap sparging and
new module
Conventional
MBR of 2006
Optimization operational
parameters
Expert control
62.5% reduction 40% reduction 15-20% reduction
still in evaluation

7. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
Forward osmosis
Why FO?
– Low and reversible fouling (Less pretreatment, less chemical cleaning)
– Improvements in FO membranes: higher fluxes and more providers
FO Challenges
– Low fluxes
– DS recovery is energy intensive and costly (salt leakage and incomplete DS recovery)
– No data: main studies are lab-scale, synthetic feed, short term and batch
Realistic studies are still needed

8. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
FO-MBR
Pilot scale FO-MBR plant
• Continuous operation during one month per
selected DS using real activated sludge
• Sustained long-term operation with minimal
fouling
• No chemical cleaning
• High DS losses Membrane test cell (CTA, HTI)

9. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
FO
Industrial wastewater
• Requiring high quality and complex treatment
• With fouling problems (requiring extensive pretreatment)
• Applications with no DS separation
• Residual heat
Municipal wastewater
• Potable reuse: multibarrier concept is state of the art
• Industrial
• Agriculture (Boron, salinity, heavy metal removal)
MBR
Market opportunities
• In the last 10 years, MBR energy consumption
has been reduced by 50% (EOI, 2014)
• Global annual growth rate of 22.4 %
• Asia Pacific and the Middle East will be leading
markets (Source: http://www.thembrsite.com)
Worldwater, Vol. 27, Issue 2
MBR predicted growth rate

10. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
Conclusions
• Water robust reclamation technologies have improved in the
last years (lower energy consumption, better membranes..)
• SANITAS:
– MBR energy consumption in a demonstration plant reduced from 0,71
to 0,14 kWh/m3 (80% reduction!)
– FO-MBR showed stable operation with low fouling, DS recovery is still
a matter of concern
• MBR technology has a bright future for wastewater
reclamation
• FO is still emerging, but it is a promising choice for concrete
applications

11. Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water System Management
Acknowledgement
www.sanitas-itn.eu
LIFE BRAINYMEM project
www.life-brainymem.com
The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Program (Marie Curie Actions) of the
European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under REA agreement 289193.
This presentation reflects only the author’s views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be
made of the information contained therein.
Our Acciona colleagues