Title Eco-innovative Systems for Wastewater Treatment Orientated to Circular

Economy in Urban Areas - Water SYSTEM

Summary The Department of Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development

Entrepreneurship for Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is preparing a
H2020CIRC-2(b)-2016-2017 proposal that aims to implement innovative
treatment technologies for small-medium-scale industrial wastewater.
Description The water crisis, environmental pollution and global warming are serious problems that are of
great concern throughout the world. Around 95% of all water in the house ends up down the
drain. Of all water available on our planet only 2,5 % is potable fresh water of which most is
present in ice caps. A mere 0,3% is directly available for consumption. The United Nations
Environment Programmer (UNEP) has calculated that due to increasing population the global
water consumption will rise dramatically over the coming years, leading to an increasing stress
on available freshwater sources, increased local drought risks and reducing the availability of
potable water for consumption. The European Environment Agency states that about 44 % of
total water abstraction in Europe is used for agriculture, 40 % for industry and energy
production (cooling in power plants), and 15 % for public water supply. The main water
consumption sectors are irrigation, urban, and manufacturing industry. From the industrial
water consumption approximately half is used as cooling water for energy production while
the other half is predominantly used for process and manufacturing industries in chemicals,
food and feed, paper and pulp, oil and gas, textile, metals, minerals and mining sectors. Going
in the percentage of population connected to waste water treatment in northern and also in
southern European countries, more than 80 % of the population is connected to waste water
treatment. In sparsely populated countries with a relative high proportion of the population
living in scattered dwellings these dwelling are not connected to collecting systems and
normally served by individual waste water treatment (e.g. septic tanks). In central Europe more
than 90 % is connected. In eastern Europe only 50 % is connected (last data are from 2002, so
this percentage may be higher now), whereas in south-eastern Europe (Turkey, Bulgaria and
Romania) there is only 35 % that are connected to waste water treatment plants.
Starting from the above the main objective of our proposed WaterSYSTEM is the development
of eco-innovative solutions that can be implemented in the socio-economic space by applying
the concept of circular economy in urban wastewater with focus in developing countries from
Central and East Europe.
It aims mainly using wastewater as a source of water for irrigation, recovery of nutrients from
wastewater to reduce nutrient intake synthetic, reduce energy consumption and renewable
energy production, reducing the amount of sludge waste by using it as fertilizer for agriculture
and production of biogas.
The Project will encompass integral ITC solutions like the Internet of Things to data
management in a circular solution context, compatible with each other and adjusted to the
different conditions (location, size, loading, market, etc.) and users (factories, farms, public
authorities and citizens).
UTCN seeking Industrial SMEs and Research Institution that have innovative technologies
and methods at TRL5 (Validation components and / or assembly in the relevant operating
conditions -mediated industrial) to TRL9 (systems whose functionality has been demonstrated
in the operational environment) that address the following general lines:
O1. The holistic approach to the treatment plant in order to reduce the negative impact of
 wastewater on the environment by using advanced methodology of treatment, introducing an
integrated management between stakeholders through recovery and reuse of technical water,
energy, recovered materials from producers, operators and users;
O2. Recovery and recycling of nutrients from wastewater efficiently through advanced
technologies and rural services / systems monitoring ITC to their capitalization through new
business models circular agricultural environment;
O3. Developing an eco-innovative system to capitalize the sludge circularity on their advanced
in order to create new opportunities for stakeholders;
O4. Increasing the economic and environmental viability and the feasibility of technological
solutions oriented circular economy by creating new markets based on products and service
obtained from wastewater (technical water, nutrients and sludge);
O5. Development of uniform and integrated EU management policies for wastewater treatment
to maximize recovery of the material, technical water and energy from exploitation.

These eco-innovative solutions should be consistent with the circular economy objectives,
contributing to the challenges of depletion of raw materials (for example, through resource
recovery from wastewater) and climate change (reducing energy demand or energy
production).

Technology 10003004 Recycling, Recovery

Keywords 10003007 Waste to Energy /Resource
10004003 Wastewater Recycling
10004006 Sludge Treatment / Disposal
10004008 Water Resources Management
Market
08004003 Water treatment equipment and waste disposal systems
Keywords
Call http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/circ-02-
2016-2017.html

What we want to obtain:

O1:
- Increasing the wastewater treatment plant efficiency by obtaining renewable energy
(biogas, heat recovery and solar energy);
- Integrated management system between stakeholders;
- Precise amounts of outputs from the load water system, sludge and coarse material ...;
- Soft related to consumption optimization...;
- Soft on the treatment responsible and effective process planning.

O2:
- Identification of possible new markets;
- expanding opportunities to grow food staff;
- Nutrients powder;
- Nutrient in mud;
- Nutrient Water;
- Developing a software which is based on sensors to monitor nutrients, bacteria and
hormones content;
- Develop an advanced technologies mechano-chemical and biological on wastewater
treatment;
- Development in agriculture used of technologies and process equipment for recovery of
nutrients;
- Technical water reuse with nutrients (N, P) for sustainable agricultural in irrigation
purposes;
- Making a constructed wetland (pond / pool) as a buffer element has;
- Developing an integrated and innovative businesses as a result of wastewater
treatment related to sustainable development areas;
- Develop local economy by developing new business models contributing to the
sustainability and competitiveness of the area.
O3:
-Development of technologies / equipment for sludge treatment to conversion them into
organic matter, nutrients (extracted from sludge) for soils and energy
production/obtained;
O4:
- Developing new goods, new markets and new ways to use technical water, nutrient and
sludge;
- Certification / approval of products and service obtained;
- Developing business plan / identify new possible sources of funding for new businesses,
focusing on products and service obtained (spin-off);
- Reducing the impact of wastewater on the environment through measures imposed by
WaterSYSTEM project.
O5:
- Developing a database of physic-chemical and biological properties of all entries in the
system (wastewater, activated sludge) and outputs of the system (technical water,
purified water, mud, coarse material) at Central and Eastern Europe;
- Developing rules of good practice on:
a) use of sludge;
b) recovery of advanced wastewater containing N, P;
c) establishing wastewater treatment lines for reutilizing in agricultural use;
d) starting from the databases would be set technical rules related nutrients water used;
e) monitoring of wetland ecosystems (RAMSAR Convention) built.
- Technical background related on changing technical norms and standards in the water
sector technical profile, nutrients and sludge from wastewater.