RDI needs and rel ated ob jecti ves
Time frame
3.1.2. Del iveri ng technol ogi ca l soluti ons for water and
wastewater t reatment ( inc ludi ng bi ological processes)
- Developing innovative membrane systems, including their support ma-
terials, for water treatment and wastewater treatment.
- Developing innovative, safe, efficient and low-cost advanced processes
for water treatment and assessment. Research should respond to the
demand for decentralised water and wastewater in European regions,
especially in rural areas. Advanced processes for water treatment and
assessment should be able to treat micro-pollutants in wastewater.
- Assessing the robustness of biological water treatment processes and
boosting the shift from conventional water treatment plants to biolog-
ical water treatment plants.
- Understanding how natural organic matter behaves during advanced
treatment processes.
Link with 2.1.2.
- Performing life-cycle assessments of treatment technologies to identify
strategies aimed at increasing the efficiency of the water treatment
process (e.g. reduction in the amount of inputs, low energy consump-
tion, smaller footprints).
- Optimising water and wastewater treatment systems through holistic
modelling and simulation approaches.
- Developing opportunities for the analysis of hybrid systems (i.e. sys-
tems combining conventional treatment processes and membranes fil-
tration) combining several degradation/removal mechanisms in different
compartments.
- Enhancing the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (in terms of
energy efficiency, zero emission) through the conception and validation
of new processes.
Link with 3.1.4.
- Developing water treatment processes by taking into account the prin-
ciples of biomimetics (nature-based solutions) and ecosystem services.
- Plant-wide modelling, optimisation and control of new water-treatment
systems.
Medium
3.1.3. Promoting innovative approaches to asset management
- Managing water assets in the context of sustainability, taking into consider-
ation the social, economic and governance dimensions. Setting objectives,
criteria, and metrics to analyse the current situations and development needs.
- Developing methodologies for assessing current and expected impacts
of climate and global changes on infrastructures and on customers’ ex-
pectations; considering both technological and social sciences ap-
proaches.
- Developing innovative procedures and fair economic systems to analyse
and disseminate costs and benefits related to the improvement of water
efficiency.
- Developing diagnostic tools to better assess the need and/or possibility
to renovate an infrastructure. Asset management innovation concepts
should be taken into account at the development stage of diagnostic
tools. Diagnostic tools should be based on an iterative approach (e.g.
serious games) to test possible alternatives.
Medium
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