Being located in a delta region, HZ deals with the challenges of coastal deltaic systems and has a strong focus on water technology. Water technology related research concentrates specifically on water quality, water availability for production (industry, agriculture and aquaculture), water (re)use efficiency, recovery of resources and monitoring of water filtration systems.
The Water Technology research group is acknowledged for its knowledge in the field, its independence and collaborative regional, national and international network. The technological research capabilities are enhanced with a strong expertise in defining and effectively addressing the needs of various stakeholders. By adding an in-depth perspective on stakeholders’ requirements early on in projects, the rate of adoption and the added value of new technology, may be increased significantly.
The Water Technology Research Group is a partner in the European Union Horizon 2020 programme for the research project AquaSPICE. AquaSPICE aims at Advancing Sustainability of Process Industries through Digital and Circular Water Use Innovations. Water is used during stages of production processes in most industries. It is estimated that 20% of all fresh water consumption globally is used by industry. Innovation in water treatment can bring closed loops to almost 100% efficiency for important industrial water users by recovering and reusing resources. Water scarcity is a reality for some of Dow locations around Europe. Dow is seeking opportunities to reduce the fresh water intake in the different production sites by reusing water streams. The water streams will be treated by technologies to reuse them again in the processes. Therefore, a pilot will be operated, which consists of containers with different water treatment technologies. The pilot will be operated at Dow Terneuzen, Dow Böhlen, and BASF Antwerpen. At each location, different water streams with different treatments will be tested. This case study is a collaboration between Dow (Terneuzen and Böhlen), Ghent University, Evides Industriewater, RWTH Aachen University, and HZ University of Applied Sciences. Additionally, the focus will be on intelligent water management. A water cyber-physical-system will be created with a measurement network of real-time sensors and a model will be constructed where decisions can be made. Hans Cappon, Emma McAteer and Lies Hamelink, from the Water Technology research group, are working on the AquaSPICE project. They are responsible for supporting the operational work of the pilots at Dow Terneuzen and Dow Böhlen, as well as participating in the data analyses and evaluation of the results. The project Aquaspice has received funding from European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 958396.
Een overzicht van de afgeronde projecten van de onderzoeksgroep Watertechnology
