The Economic Benefits of Water Innovation

The SusChem-inspired FP7 project ‘Economically and Ecologically Efficient Water Management in the European Chemical Industry’ (E4Water) will be holding a workshop on the Economic benefits of Water Innovation on Thursday 5 November 2015 at the offices of the State of Hessen Representation to the EU at 21 Rue Montoyer, Brussels. The event will focus on the topical issue of the economic challenges and opportunities for the chemical sectors when looking at water innovation solutions (such as water reuse and recycling). With the E4Water project now nearing its end, some of the main experiences and results gathered by the project will be presented.  The event is free of charge, but registration is mandatory. Registration is now open.

The workshop will take place from 10h00 to 16h30, at the offices of the Representation to the EU of the State of Hessen at 21 Rue Montoyer, 1000 Brussels. Note this is a change to the venue originally announced on this blog. A full programme for the day can be accessed here.

Among the confirmed speakers are:

• Panos Balabanis, Deputy Head of Unit 'Eco-innovation', DG RTD
• Edouard Perard, European Investment Bank
• Thomas Track, Dechema, Project Coordinator E4Water
• Marianne Wenning, EU Commission, DG Environment, Director "Quality of Life, Water and Air"
• Dirk Van der Stede, Flanders Knowledge Center Water, Vlakwa
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• Uwe Fortkamp, IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet
• Peter Cauwenberg, Vito
• Riikka Timonen, Kemira
• Alexandre Muller, Total
• Eddy Linclau, P&G
• Luc Brams, Agfa

Water is an important natural resource on the planet, playing a big role in our sustainability effort. At the corporate level, the value of water is increasingly recognised as a natural resource to be shared between many users.

Cefic’s "The Water Matters!" flagship initiative focuses on water use at operating sites, with particular regard to “water stressed” areas. The main objectives of the initiative are to further support corporate efforts towards sustainable water management and to raise awareness on the importance of water risk assessment and mitigation within the chemical sector.

What is E4Water?
With the chemical industry providing the highest potential to demonstrate increased eco-efficiency in industrial water management, the FP7 project ‘Economically and Ecologically Efficient Water Management in the European Chemical Industry’ (E4Water) addresses a range of crucial process needs to overcome bottlenecks and barriers to a fully integrated and energy efficient water management system.

The project’s main objective is to develop and test integrated approaches, methodologies and process technologies. There are six industrial case study sites at the core of E4Water that are expected to achieve a reduction of 20-40% in water use, 30-70% in waste water production, 15-40% in energy use and up to 60% in direct economic benefits. In addition to the chemical industry, the project is actively seeking opportunities for cross-fertilisation with other industrial sectors.

The project consortium brings together large chemical companies, leading European water sector companies and innovative research and technology development centres and universities. The partners are also involved in the Water supply and sanitation Platform (WssTP) and SusChem, the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry, and actively collaborate with water authorities in different European countries.

For more information about SusChem involvement with water issues, please contact Antonia Morales-Perez at Cefic, or visit the water priority page on the SusChem website.