Industries such as petrochemical, biochemical, pulp & paper, and steel produce highly complex wastewaters. High concentrations of recalcitrant organics, dissolved salts, heavy metals or nutrients result in challenging, complex and costly technical solutions for industrial wastewater reuse. In addition, thermal energy is lost in the process, leading to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and costly treatment demands. In the R3VOLUTION project, these problems are used as strategic opportunities to establish which value-added solutes can be recovered and which circularities within the industrial plants can be consolidated.

Depending on the industrial facility and sector, the recovery of water, solutes and energy valorization may have to be achieved in segregated streams (upstream process) or a centralized industrial wastewater treatment plant (downstream process). Therefore, to demonstrate R3VOLUTION’s solution capabilities and replicability potential across varied process industries, R3VOLUTION includes four physical demo cases at pilot scale targeting several up- and down-streams in various industries with high water discharges and complex effluents (Figure 1).

Key objectives include

1). Design membrane-based wastewater treatment trains for water reuse, solute recovery, heat reuse and ensure complete removal of hazardous substances,

2). Develop novel membrane materials and define optimal integration in terms of materials, functionalization and configuration to maximize process efficiency,

3). Develop a smart digital tool for decision support, risk management and process optimization for water reuse and solutes, and energy recovery, and 4). Demonstrate the R3V toolbox in 4 industrial sites.