IWEC Project Information Sheet

Project Information Sheet

Increased Water Efficiency with Ceramic membrane technology (IWEC)

Summary

After years of research done in Europe, the first full scale system for reuse of filter backwash water with ceramic membranes (IWEC) will be build as a demonstration plant at drinking water treatment location Wierden (Vitens) in the Netherlands.The demonstration plant will validate the systems reliability, costs and savings at a operational drinking water treatment plant.

To ensure the quality of the drinking water, a important part of the IWEC project is monitoring the water quality after the system. The outcome of this monitoring can be used at similar treatment plants to reduce monitoring costs there.

Vitens and RWB will prepare a overview of costs, energy and chemical consumption and sludge analyses for dissemination in Europe to make a more efficient use of water resources possible.

Expected and/or achieved results

1. The IWEC project will prove the feasibility for reuse of over 1 billion m3sweet groundwater discharged annually as filter backwash water in the drinking water treatment process.
2. The full scale demonstration plant at drinking water treatment plant Wierden will reuse almost 1 million m3 groundwater during the project. Reused water is not discharged and has no need for extra extraction. Strict monitoring of microbiological and chemical parameters will validate the reliability of the reuse system.
3. The full scale demonstration plant at drinking water treatment plant Wierden will validate the calculated 30% energy reduction compared to current practice and 80% energy reduction compared to state of the art solutions. Not only energy is considered, pilot testing indicated a reduction in chemical use of 50% and a significant lower operational costs compared to state of the art technology.
4. The project partners will investigate the possibilities for IWEC in Europe, especially in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Belgium. The results will be presented throughout Europe as part of the dissemination plan.

The information sheet will be published in the Eco-Innovation website. The EACI reserves the right to edit the information sheet for content and length

Page 1