CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION
Ensure access to water and sanitation for all
Over 2,000 million people in the world live without access to a basic drinking water service, and 3,6 billionhave no access to a basic sanitation service, resulting in avoidable deaths, chronic disease, fewer hours of education and low productivity.
ACCIONA has positioned itself as a key player in the water treatment sector. Its innovative management seeks to resolve the challenges with respect to the shortage of water resources.
CLIMATE ACTION
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
The generation and use of energy accounts for 35 % of total greenhouse gas emissions in the world. This activity is the largest contributor to global warming. Investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency and other low-carbon technologies will continue to be essential to meet the emerging needs of humanity and to minimize their negative impact on the environment.
ACCIONA considers the fight against climate change and its effects to be a strategic priority. The company works to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in order to contribute to the progress of society and respond to the main challenges of sustainable development in the areas of infrastructure, water and energy, leading the transition to a low-carbon economy.
To this end, it is foreseen to recover more water from the desalination process, reduce the energetic consumption, minimize the use of chemicals and reuse the concentrated streams. The project is being developed in a pilot plant installed in San Pedro del Pinatar desalination plant premises (Murcia, Spain).
The LIFE DREAMER project, co-financed by the LIFE programme (LIFE16 ENV/ES/000223), is coordinated by the water business of ACCIONA and counts with the participation of the companies AQUASTILL, a leading company in the field of membrane distillation, and WE&B, a consulting firm focused on the economic and social aspects of the water and environmental sectors.
The technological solution proposed by the LIFE DREAMER consortium consists of the integration of different technologies, including:
- A pre-treatment based on a granular filtration system with phosphorus adsorption capacity.
- A filtration-decantation system for the treatment of pre-treatment cleaning effluents with high solids loading
- An advanced oxidation system treating reverse osmosis cleaning streams with organic loading
- A brine treatment system, using nanofiltration and membrane distillation.
The demonstration pilot plant, designed and built in the first phase of the project in the facilities of the seawater desalination plant (IDAM) of San Pedro del Pinatar-II (Murcia, Spain), treats a seawater flow of up to 10m3/h with the same catchment water as the IDAM, which ensures the representativeness of the results, and facilitates their subsequent scaling and transfer.
RESULTS OF THE LIFE DREAMER PROJECT
The main results obtained after more than three years of development, demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept, as well as the associated environmental benefits. In particular, an increase in the overall conversion of the system of up to 35% over the conventional system, a 99% reduction in the volume of pre-treatment washing effluents, as well as the reduction of biological fouling in the osmosis membranes thanks to the advances introduced in the pre-treatment, have been obtained.
The project thus aligns the desalination process with the Circular Economy concept, considering seawater as a source of resources and contributing to the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goal 6 "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all", in line with ACCIONA's commitment to sustainability and care for the environment.