1. PMC Report
2. DESAL+ LIVING LAB presentation

Procurement procedure for the provision of a “R&D service for the assessment of the feasibility, design, development and validation of a pilot seawater desalination solution with the potential to reach the threshold of 1.5 kWh/m3 of desalinated water".

The priority of this procurement is to hire R&D services from technological-base startups and companies. The services must involve the design and demonstration of highly innovative pre-commercial solutions (from a TRL4) in seawater desalination, resulting in a solution closer to the market (TRL7). These solutions must be developed in Gran Canaria. Besides, this initiative will lay the foundations to boost the development of an end-product (even though it may still be far from reaching the market) in order to favour the improvement of the industry and the increase of the knowledge-based economy in Gran Canaria.

This programme reinforces four strategic lines:

• ‣ Employment creation.
• ‣ Talent support.
• ‣ Boost of business innovation.
• ‣ Boost of internationalisation.

Therefore, this public procurement procedure is intended to support innovation in order to search for and develop pre-commercial solutions in Gran Canaria, characterised by a high market projection in the field of desalination, through the public procurement of R&D services.

The following general objectives are required:

• ‣ To reach energy consumption figures well below the consumption levels offered by the currently available desalination solutions.
• ‣ To reduce the volume of brine production.
• ‣ To reduce the consumption of chemicals used in the process.
• ‣ To be able to complete the entire process on competitive operational costs.
• ‣ To reduce the impact generated by the current desalination processes, always subject to the current or future statutory industrial, environmental and health requirements.

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In particular, the proposals aim to accomplish the following Specific Objectives:

• ‣ To achieve a solution capable of producing desalinated water (electrical conductivity below 500 uS/cm and compliance with the current and future health regulations) below 1.5kWh/m3.
• To increase the conversion of the process without efficiency risks above 50%.
• ‣ To put forward a solution that is chemical-free or that minimises the use of chemicals.
• ‣ To reduce the operational costs of industrial-scale desalination processes, reaching a cost below €0.60/m3 of desalinated water.

This consultation tries to identify non-commercial solutions in TRL2 that require support to move forward, through a pre-commercial public procurement on their way to becoming commercial solutions with high market projection in desalination (TRL6 or higher).

This PMC focus on innovative solutions with emerging non-commercial technologies that, through individual or hybrid solutions, allow achieving a series of competitive advantages: reducing the discharge of brine, chemical-free desalination and/or the considerable reduction of specific energy consumption; and, after agreeing to a pre-commercial public procurement, it advances in its R&D project in several phases to become a product with high potential for the market.

CHALLENGE 1.- BRINE

Description: Exploitation of brine from desalination plants within the framework of the circular economy strategy: solutions and processes that allow the recovery of brine in transit to the minimum possible discharge.

Technical specifications: solutions, processes or technology that enhance the varolization of the brine discharged from seawater desalination plants and, at the same time, reduce its volumen.

These initiatives must be technologically viable, robust, applicable on a large scale, that generate added value, capable of generating benefits and that once is respectful with the environment.

The project must have as its goal the partial recovery of brine, value-added resources or generated from brine.

CHALLENGE 2.- EMERGING DESALINATION

Description: new desalination technologies, whether alternative or supplementary to reverse osmosis (SL9), including new non-commercial sub-processes or changes of the current technology that improve the energy efficiency of the desalination process.

Technical specifications: Solutions, processes or technologies are required to help to reduce the carbon footprint and volume of brine discharges from desalination plants, while reducing the consumption of chemical products in the process, most of which are discharged along with the flow. of brine. These initiatives must be technologically viable, robust, applicable on a large scale, and environmentally sustainable.

The project must be perceived as an efficient and competitive alternative or complement to reverse osmosis. So that this technology, with the necessary support, achieves different goals: minimizing the discharge of brine, chemical-free desalination, increasing energy efficiency or reducing specific energy consumption.

“R&D service for the assessment of the feasibility, design, development and validation of a pilot seawater desalination solution with the potential to reach the threshold of 1.5 kWh/m3 of desalinated water".

Two companies have been contracted by ITC to develop the design and demonstration of two highly innovative pre-commercial solutions (from a TRL4) in seawater desalination, resulting in a solution closer to the market (TRL7). These solutions will be installed in Gran Canaria in a pilot scale. This initiative will lay the foundations to boost the development of an end-product (even though it may still be far from reaching the market) in order to favour the improvement of the industry and the increase of the knowledge-based economy in Gran Canaria.

Along this phase 1, the companies have to design the pilot solutions and to show the viability of the solution at industrial scale.

The following general objectives are required in the contracts signed:

• – To reach energy consumption figures well below the consumption levels offered by the currently available desalination solutions.
• – To reduce the volume of brine production.
• – To reduce the consumption of chemicals used in the process.
• – To be able to complete the entire process on competitive operational costs.
• – To reduce the impact generated by the current desalination processes, always subject to the current or future statutory industrial, environmental and health requirements.

The companies contracted have the following Specific Objectives:

• – To achieve a solution capable of producing desalinated water (electrical conductivity below 500 uS/cm and compliance with the current and future health regulations) below 1.5kWh/m3.
• – To increase the conversion of the process without efficiency risks above 50%.
• – To put forward a solution that is chemical-free or that minimises the use of chemicals.
• – To reduce the operational costs of industrial-scale desalination processes, reaching a cost below €0.60/m3 of desalinated water.