The work performed during the first 36 months of the project mainly consisted in the development of the Components of the MDC (electrodes and membranes), the process integration and pre-pilot validation together with the Process simulation, automation and control on the technical side, MDC pilot plant design and the construction have been started. On the market side, a great number of dissemination and exploitation activities have been developed.
Regarding the electrode development, different concepts of carbon-based electrodes were evaluated with respect to its electrochemical properties and industrial manufacturability. As a result of the previous task, the requirements of electrodes to be used in MDC reactors were defined. Thanks to these requirements nanostructured electrodes were achieved at lab-scale and benchmarked with commercial materials.
With respect to the membrane development a definition of specifications for IE membranes to be used in MDC Systems where established. After the definition of these initial specifications of IE membranes with advanced properties in a batch process were produced. These membrane were characterized and tested at lab-scale under operative conditions characterization and in-situ cleaning procedures of membrane where developed. Afterwards, IE membranes were produced with an industrially-scalable continuous process.
Using the inputs from the electrode and membrane developments, the MIDES MDC pre-pilot unit has been constructed and is being tested in real conditions.
Finally with regards to the technical actions, the pre-treatment process has been optimized for the process integration and pre-pilot validation and the modeling and simulation of overall Process is been performed.
With the information obtained, pilot plant were designed including the elements developed in the previous months and the operational information obtained at lab and pre-pilot scale, pre and post-treatment were included and the construction was started.
On the market side, the MIDES Business and Exploitation Plan has been developed and updated in month 6 and 12. A Business Plan Development workshop was organized with the help of the Common Exploitation Booster service offered by the EC.
A number of dissemination activities have been developed by all Consortium members, which can be shown at the project website:
http://midesh2020.eu/(si apre in una nuova finestra) and social media tools. It is important to highlight the various leaflets, posters and a micro demonstration prototype which has been displayed at the numerous events where the project has been present (Leading edge technology IWA conference; Aquatech; IDA World Desalination Congress; European Desalination Society, Conferences; COP 23-24 UN Climate Change Conference) and a video have been to disseminate the project and are also available through the website.
