IndiWater - Independent industrial water supply by digitalization, simulation and innovative treatment technologies

Initial situation:
Increasing water stress leads to limited or insufficient availability of groundwater and river water with negative effects on production processes such as continuous casting and hot rolling. There is no or only very limited reuse of wastewater due to strongly fluctuating contents of salts, hardness and organic substances in wastewater from emulsion, chemical and biological wastewater treatment plants as well as vacuum treatment. Suitable recovery technologies are not available from a technological or economic point of view. A lack of information on flow rates, chemical compositions and complex water systems prevents effective water management and thus the prediction of emerging problems in industrial wastewater treatment plants.
Project targets:
- Water recovery from waste waters containing e.g. oil, fat, heavy metals, bacteria or particles as effluents from degreasing bath, biological/chemical treatment or gas washing water
- Improvement of water management and treatment plant operation by prediction tool based on modelling and simulations of the different circuits using new installed digital monitoring and control systems
- Decrease of dependency of production processes from freshwater intake by internal wastewater reuse as make up water
Innovative approaches:
- Pre-filtration with new modular ceramic flat membranes for removal of organics and solids
- Combination with desalting technologies as coated RO membranes and Membrane based capacitive deionisation to achieve near ZLD.
- Digital mapping and simulation of wastewater and gas-scrubber-water treatment plants in the SIMBA# software environment to forecast water recovery potentials based on new treatment technologies
Benefits for the industry:
- Reducing the dependence of production processes on external fresh water supplies through optimized recycling of process and waste water
- Optimizing water and waste water management through the use of digital simulation and forecasting tools
- Optimizing water and waste water management to comply with official withdrawal and discharge guidelines
About the project:
IndiWater is funded by the European Union, Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or of project management agency HaDEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Project duration: 07/2021 – 12/2024
Results:
- Summary for publication
- D6.1: Report with the meeting dates and short minutes meetings (CFT)
- D6.2: Report on publication activities (CFT)
partners
Funding reference
Your contact person

12 Dipl.-Ing. Martin Hubrich
+49 211 98492-343
martin.hubrich_at_bfi.de