Objectives
The overall objective of WIDER UPTAKE is to facilitate industrial symbiosis by co-development of a roadmap towards wider uptake of water-smart solutions for wastewater reuse and resource recovery.
This will be based on the principles of circular economy and be achieved through the following specific objectives:
- Demonstrate innovative technical solutions that optimize water reuse, resource recovery and energy utilisation in selected industry in five demonstration case studies.
- Develop and apply monitoring and control schemes to adequately manage the health and quality risks associated with reuse of treated wastewater and recovered resources.
- Optimise the value chains to quantify the improved resource efficiency and economic benefits, also with respect to future applications.
- Facilitate wider uptake of water-smart solutions through governance assessment, design of innovative business models and identification of transition paths for industry – utility symbioses.
- Evaluate water smartness and sustainability of the symbiotic CE solutions.
- Network development and stakeholder dialogue around the key findings and their implications, including the establishment of a roadmap for implementation of water-smart solutions in an open access Virtual Learning and Sharing Centre.
The project is organised in seven Work Packages (WPs):
Demonstration cases (WP 1)
Lead: Stein Wold Østerhus
WP 1 organise all the activities in the case studies for developing, implementing and demonstrating the elements of the industrial symbioses in each case. This organisation, with all the case studies in one WP, facilitate interaction between the cases to share lessons learnt and best practice. The activities will, in addition to the technical innovations, also cover non-technical activities performed by the local utility, industry and research partner e.g. development of specific business plans or value chains for the given case. These activities will in each case be linked to the activities in WIDER UPTAKE to address common barriers to widespread uptake of the innovative tools to improve the industrial symbioses.
Health and quality risks (WP 2)
Lead: Jaroslav Pollert Junior
WP 2 will develop a general procedure for monitoring and control of health and quality risks that can account for the multi-actor contributions to the risks in symbiotic relations between water utilities and industries. WP 2 will also produce a database for compilation of data from the different case studies. The methodology and database will be tested and validated in the case studies in an interaction with the local partners.
Circular economy and efficiency potential (WP 3)
Lead: Zoran Kapelan
WP3 addresses the efficiency of the symbiotic solutions and will develop methodologies and tools to assess and optimise resource efficiency and circularity of the symbiotic solutions. The WP will also address optimisation of the value chains with respect to economy. The tools will be customised for the specific case studies and applied in close collaboration with the local partners.
Governance and business models (WP 4)
Lead: Sigrid Damman
WP4 is devoted to governance and business models for industrial symbiosis and will develop a governance assessment tool, a plan for network development and develop business models for industrial symbiosis. The tool and methodologies will be co-developed with local partners and stakeholders in the case studies.
Water smartness and sustainability (WP 5)
Lead: Herman Helness
In WP5 a procedure for measuring the water smartness of the symbiotic solutions and their contribution towards the SDGs will be developed as a general tool. The activity will be informed by WP2, WP3 and WP4 with regards to criteria for measuring water smartness in the respective topics and draw on input from these WPs in addition to other sources. The tool will be customised for the specific case studies and demonstrated in close collaboration with the local partners stakeholders.
Roadmap for water smartness and dissemination (WP 6)
Lead: Giorgio Mannina
WP6 will develop the roadmap that will be the conveyor of the project results and facilitate exploitation of these beyond the project duration of 4 years. All of the WPs will contribute to this by providing input, lessons learnt and methods to be included in the roadmap. The activity in WP6 will in addition establish dissemination and exploitation tools such as the VLSC and the plan for dissemination and exploitation that will support the local partners in case specific activities and also guide the project wide dissemination organised in WP6.