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.
A preventive diagnosis of the quality of the feed water will help to optimize the membrane cleaning processes, reducing the amount of chemical reagents needed and adjusting the operating conditions of the pre-treatments. All this results in an important advantage in the operation and maintenance of desalination plants. The goal of the project is to extend RO membranes lifespan and maximize the production of permeated water.
To this end WITNESS will consider not only the biological indicator developed in the project but also its complementarity with other (pre-) commercial sensors whose integration with Artificial Intelligence models will allow establishing membrane fouling preventive strategies.
The WITNESS project is supported by the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), under the Ministry of Science and Innovation, and will be developed at ACCIONA's Water Technology Center located in Barcelona, as well as at the Leading Experimental Accelerator in Desalination platform (LEAD®) of ACCIONA, located in the seawater desalination plant (IDAM) of San Pedro del Pinatar-II (Murcia), property of the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla and operated by ACCIONA.
The project started in October 2021 and will end in December 2023.