L4CW-DEMO · Demonstration of a novel system to breakdown hazardous substances in wastewater streams into harmless bio-friendly compounds using multi-chromatic UV light

Many industrial processes create a significant volume of polluted waste water streams, which needs to be cleaned prior to return to the environment to ensure the sustainability of the water supplies and the environment. This is reflected in a significant body of legislation, including the European Water Framework Directive and the IPPC directive. Light4CleanWater R4SME project (FP7-SME-2008-01-232073) resulted in a pilot system that was able to safely and cost effectively treat toxic organic waste streams; breaking down hazardous substances into harmless bio-friendly compounds, using an advanced oxidation process based on multi-chromatic UV source (AOP-UV), without generating any secondary toxic by-products. To enable this water treatment technology, the result of EC supported RTD under the R4SME programme to be commercially exploited there is a need to:1) Industrialise the manufacturing process to enable volume production and economies of scale to be achieved.2) To validate a commercially viable process that can be marketed with a reasonable return on investment (RoI) by customers; the industrial system has been identified as needing to be able to cost less than €30/m3 of waste water treated. This cost base was identified as being achievable in the R4SME project; it now needs to be validated on an industrial scale and will be an economic target of this project.3) To demonstrate the technology over extended periods in industrial locations (two different sites for over six months at each site).4) The demonstrations to be shown to relevant potential customers (over sixty) from across industry and across Europe, in a format that is able to show it to be of potential to benefit to their respective businesses.5) Feedback from demonstrations to be collated in a format that enables iterative system enhancement to improve the commercial viability of the process.