Commercialization of Innovative Industrial Wastewater Treatment Technology Using Smart Automation Solutions (Ongoing)

Project description. The development of innovative, circular economy-oriented environmentally friendly technologies promoted by Industry 4.0 accelerates the growth of efficiency and productivity of companies worldwide. In Lithuania, these decisions are implemented rather slowly, which reduces the competitiveness of companies in the EU. One of the problematic areas is the treatment of contaminated water generated in various industrial sectors, which requires considerable human resources for management and control, is in many cases inefficient, and is difficult to adapt to the changing production process in the company. Along with insufficiently purified industrial water, several various pollutants enter the natural environment, including toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative organic pollutants. Many of them are not removed in traditional treatment plants (e.g. activated sludge reactors), which require steady conditions for proper operation, and the retention time of pollutants is often too short. The synergy of integrated environmental protection and information technology knowledge is needed to improve water treatment technologies. This project will develop and commercialize an innovative, smart automation-based biologically active carbon (BAA) technological solution for cleaning industrial water contaminated with organic pollutants. BAA technology will be tested and trained by implementing intelligent automation tools in real conditions, and after calibration and training the system will be able to react to changing factors and make appropriate decisions. The carrier/adsorbent in the system will provide extended contact time, which will be directly facilitated by the synergistic interaction between the adsorbent and the biomass in the reactor. This will make it possible to effectively remove toxic compounds and the negative influence of increased instantaneous loads. During the development of the technological solution, the TPL 6 stage achieved by the applicants will be developed to the TPL 9 stage in this project. The technology will be tested in a real factory. After the end of the project, BAA technology will be sold and installed in various industrial facilities.

The project is financed by EU funds.