ChemWater plans strategy for sustainable water

Improving efficiency in water use is essential to avoid the potential impact of climate change and other factors on water resources in Europe. The new ChemWater FP7 project will help to address these issues by linking the process industry and water industry.

ChemWater launched earlier in the summer and is a coordination and support action project under FP7 that will last 30 months and involves 11 partners. Its essential aim is to link process industry and water industry know-how to develop sustainable water resources.

The 11 international partners are drawn from the scientific, industrial and water utility communities and will develop a long-term strategy for sustainable industrial use of water in close coordination with existing initiatives and projects. A special focus will be the exploitation of the technological potentials in the fields of nanotechnology, materials and process innovation.

Sustainable solutions
“In developing sustainable solutions for water issues the process industry, especially chemistry, can play an essential role: both as a major water user and a key innovation provider for the development of future water technologies.” says Dr. Thomas Track of project coordinators DECHEMA. A core rationale behind the project is to highlight the role of the European Chemical and related process industries as solution providers within the context of the complex challenges of industrial and urban water management. The project aims to coordinate EU strategies across and beyond existing technology platforms, including SusChem, to integrate and exploit new findings.

“This role emphasises a transformation in perspective which values "chemistry for water" alongside the more traditional notion of "water for chemistry",” explains Thomas. “Such a perspective allows the project to extend its reach and impact beyond the chemical sector itself to key strategic European process industry sectors such as mining, industrial biotechnology, health, food, electronic, pulp and paper, and energy.”

Roadmap for a Water Efficient Europe
Relevant European Technology Platforms active in these sectors will be involved to allow the identification of cross-industry synergies, build a roadmap for technologies and process development requirements and construct an action plan. At the same time, concepts for the rapid commercialization of innovations will be formulated.

ChemWater can provide significant support for the proposed European Innovation Partnership (EIP): "Water Efficient Europe". This will be discussed in a ChemWater workshop to be organised in early 2012. The project will also have synergies with the proposed Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) PPP.

Obviously the issue of sustainable water resources is a global issue. And ChemWater will be looking to work with existing EU international networks and cooperation actions to disseminate its findings across the World.

More information at the ChemWater website.