AQUASOL project targets renewable energy solutions for desalination

The EU-funded AQUASOL (Advanced Quality Renewable Energy-Powered Solutions for Water Desalination In Agriculture And Wastewater Recycling) project involves a group of six European partners developing renewable energy-powered desalination solutions for seawater and brackish water.

 

What is the AQUASOL project?

Funded with € 3.6 million from the EU Horizon programme’s Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment budget, the AQUASOL project aims to address one of the main roadblocks to widespread uptake of desalination, it’s carbon footprint.

Traditional land-based desalination plants have intensive energy requirements that are still overwhelmingly powered by fossil fuels. Recognising that desalination is one of the key components of future water security, the AQUASOL project members are tasked with developing innovative solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in desalination plants and facilitate a green transition in desalination processes.

 

Developing disruptive desalination solutions

The partners include research institutions, universities, and small and medium businesses. Together, they will develop a technological platform over the course of three years that will enable the integration of renewable energy sources into desalination technologies and provide disruptive solutions for seawater and wastewater treatment.

The six partners are: The University of Manchester (UK); Instituto Tecnologico De Canarias (Spain); Strane Innovation (France); Ferr Tech B.V. (Netherlands); FarmB Psifiaki Georgia Anonimi Eatira (Greece), and Aarhus University, Denmark.

The project is being coordinated by Fundacio Institut de Recerca En Energia De Catalunya.

 

What will each partner bring to the project?

Each of the partners receives a share of the overall funding provided by the EU Horizon project and will bring their own expertise to the project. Examples include: 

Professor Rahul Nair, a researcher at The University of Manchester, will develop graphene-based membranes designed to treat seawater and brackish water more efficiently. The goal is to increase membrane durability and reduce energy demands, offering practical improvements over current desalination systems.

The Operations Management Group at Aarhus University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will lead the system design, the prediction of renewable-energy availability and freshwater demand as part of the overall Energy Management System (EMS), together with targeted impact assessments and analyses of material and energy flows for circularity.

Two of the nine departments R&D departments at The Canary Islands Institute of Technology will contribute their specialised expertise in water and renewable energy technologies. The institute will lead on laboratory validation in a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) environment and pilot testing, including integration trials at its DESAL+ Living Lab, which is a unique platform for real-world testing at the water-energy nexus.

The institute will take a support role in system use case definition, the development of an Energy Management System (EMS), and the assessment of scalability and market uptake, helping ensure AQUASOL’s solutions can move from prototype to practical real-world deployment.

Ferr Tech B.V. is contributing cutting-edge expertise to develop sustainable, energy-efficient solutions for water desalination and wastewater recycling. The company will focus on optimising feed water treatment using advanced Ferrate (VI) technology, ensuring high-quality input for membrane filtration while minimising environmental impact.

Ferr Tech B.V. is also collaborating on multi-physics simulations for centrifugal pump systems that support the development of novel 2D-material-based membranes, enhancing system efficiency and durability.