E4Water Newsletter out!

To celebrate its initial year of work SusChem supported FP7 project E4Water has just published its first newsletter. The publication describes progress in the project’s quest to improve water management in the European chemical industry by making it economically and ecologically more efficient.

The newsletter reports on the work done during the first twelve months of the project and gives an overview of E4Water’s main objectives.

E4Water is a very applied project that gets strong input from both industry and research organisations to provide solutions for a more “eco-efficient” approach to industrial water management. This and subsequent editions of the E4Water newsletter will feature the E4Water cases studies that are at the heart of the project and highlight best practise.

Case studies
In this first newsletter two case studies are presented: the Dow case in Terneuzen, Netherlands, and the Solvic case in Antwerp, Belgium. These cases give a good insight on how strongly the partners in E4Water work together.

The Dow Case involves a large-scale symbiotic reuse concept: mild desalination of water streams for optimum reuse in industry or agriculture at affordable costs at the Dow Benelux Terneuzen site.

The Solvic Case – described as an ‘industrial experimental garden’ – aims to enhance water reuse by global management and synergy identification on a multi-company site. Here Solvic is looking to enable synergy effects with neighbourhood industries in the Port of Antwerp Chemical Cluster.

The Dow and Solvic NV case studies are two of six case studies that are at the heart of the E4Water project and are the result of an extensive stakeholder dialogue during the preparation of the project to ensure high relevance to the E4Water approach for the chemical industry. The four other case studies involve sites in Spain, France and Denmark plus another Belgian example.

What is E4Water?
The E4Water project is a European Commission-funded FP7 project jointly developed by SusChem and the European Water Platform (WssTP). E4Water was launched in May 2012 and will continue for four years. The project is coordinated by Dechema.

The E4Water project aims to develop, test and validate new integrated approaches, methodologies and process technologies for a more efficient and sustainable management of water in the chemical industry (see schematic below). The results of the project will also be applicable to other industrial sectors.

E4Water unites in its consortium large chemical industries, leading European water sector companies and innovative RTD centres and universities active in the area of water management. E4Water aims to reduce water use by 20-40%, decrease waste water production by 30-70%, and cut energy use by 15-40% in the sector.

You can find out more about the E4Water project on their website. where you can also download the newsletter.