Articles
ULTIMATE project
CWS and CSAM H2020 project success - ULTIMATE
The Centre for Water Systems (CWS) in CEMPS and the Centre for Simulation, Analytics and Modelling (CSAM) in the Business School have successfully secured EU H2020 funding for the 'ULTIMATE' project (indUstry water-utiLiTy symbIosis for a sMarter wATer sociEty).
ULTIMATE will be coordinated by KWR Water Research Institute, Netherlands along with 27 European partners, including the University of Exeter. The project will act as a catalyst for 'Water Smart Industrial Symbiosis' (WSIS) in which water/wastewater plays a key role both as a reusable resource but also as a vector for energy and materials to be extracted, treated, stored and reused within a dynamic socio-economic and business oriented industrial ecosystem.
The project will adopt an evidence-based approach anchored on 9 large-scale demonstrations across Europe and SE Mediterranean relevant to the agro-food processing, beverages, heavy chemical/petrochemical and biotech industries. ULTIMATE will recover, refine and reuse wastewater (industrial and municipal), as well as extract and exploit energy and materials contained in industrial wastewater.
ULTIMATE will nurture partnerships between business (including industrial and technological ecosystems), water service providers, regulators and policy makers and actively supports them through immersive interactions. The project will adopt Mixed Reality storytelling approach technology and art to co-produce shared visions for a more circular, profitable, socially responsible and environmentally friendly industry, with water at its centre. The project will mobilise a strong partnership of industrial complexes and symbiosis clusters, leading water companies and water service providers, specialised SMEs, research institutes and water-industry collaboration networks, and builds on an impressive portfolio of past and ongoing research and innovation, leveraging multiple European and global networks to ensure real impact.
Dr Albert Chen, Prof Slobodan Djordjevic and Dr Mehdi Khoury from CWS and Prof Nav Mustafee from CSAM will form the University of Exeter team, contributing to the development and application of optimisation, simulation and modelling tools to determine potential impacts of industry-water symbiosis. UTLIMATE will be a four year project from 2020 to 2024 with a total budget of €16.7M, in which the University of Exeter will share €400K.
Date: 18 March 2020