The INDIA-H2O consortium comprises 18 participating organisations from across EU and India, including universities, research institutes and industries. Consortium members have been working in teams, each dedicated to a specific work package i.e. groundwater desalination, phytoremediation, industrial systems, control systems, water governance, and business development.
INDIA-H2O’s BRO/FO technology has been installed and is operational at two sites in India, one at PDEU and the other at the village of Lodhva, a coastal arid region of Gujarat. Impressive recovery ratios of 70-75% and specific energy consumption for the system of 0.37 kWh/m3 have been achieved. A system control methodology utilising new sensor monitoring has been installed as part of the Lodhva system.
Phyto-treatment solutions have been developed and designed for integration with the BRO/FO technologies. The treatment capacity has been validated in a small wetland construction and larger a larger scale solution has been constructed and will be installed and to treat the wastewater source at PDEU and integrated with the FO/BRO system.
Halophytic crops (Salicornia and Sarcocornia) have been demonstrated as effective recipients of irrigation using brine reject from the BRO system. Plantations of Salicornia and Sarcocornia have been established and harvested at the Lodhva site. Several initiatives have been taken to promote the use of the crop in Gujarat.
Integrated solutions demonstrating the benefits of FO, BRO and nanofiltration have been developed and validated using effluents modelled from dairy, textile and tannery industries. The solutions developed and pilot results have been shown to enable industrial water recycling levels of between 60-80%.
The relevant policy landscape has been analysed and a policy brief directed at India policymakers on sustainable and equitable groundwater management has been produced.
In 2022, a Centre of Excellence in Water Treatment and Management was opened at PDEU, offering state-of-the-art facilities to test water treatment solutions. Additionally, after three successful international water management conferences held at PDEU, a fourth is planned for 2025.
The University of Birmingham has granted a licence for the hybrid batch reverse osmosis technology to spin-out company Salinity Solutions, raising over EUR 1.4 million, and has already reached agreement with British firm Te-Tech Process Solutions to start production of bespoke water treatment solutions.
Meanwhile project partners are also busy exploiting the technology. The Indian Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute is currently commercialising sensor and monitoring technologies developed during the project. Aquaporin in Denmark, developer of the forward osmosis biomimetic membrane technology, has been listed on the Nasdaq Copenhagen, raising EUR 38 million.
