The Eurecat technology centre is taking part in the iRAIN project which is to develop an innovative water resource management system by researching new systems and technologies to safely reclaim and reuse wastewater and its nutrients for agricultural purposes.
It will harness state-of-the-art hybrid tools which combine monitoring and artificial intelligence by merging data from satellites, drones, agricultural robots and sensor networks to meet current demand for water resources through new sources of supply, such as water reuse through wastewater purification and reclamation processes, to reuse it in agricultural and industrial operations.
The Eurecat technology centre is coordinating the scientific and technical side of the iRAIN project while Facsa, which has been engaged in water management cycle for 150 years, is leading the multidisciplinary iRAIN consortium made up of 10 partners: the companies Facsa, Giditek, Aquacorp, Azud, Airbus, Telespazio, Saltó and Akis and the technology centres Eurecat and CATEC, which furnish the knowledge and technology transfer needed to achieve the proposed disruptive innovations.
The purpose of iRAIN is to substantially improve wastewater management and use, combat water scarcity and harness reuse processes and reclaimed and recovered resources as efficiently and productively as possible.
“Against the backdrop of today’s water crisis, it is essential to develop water reuse solutions which are competitive, sustainable and can deliver sufficient quality for application in the agricultural or industrial sectors,” points out Caroline Sielfeld, a researcher in Eurecat’s Water, Air and Soil Unit.
Consequently, Eurecat “is to research and develop a range of technologies for recovering nutrients and reusing water in agriculture by tapping urban wastewater which will make agriculture more resilient to climate change,” she adds.
In the iRAIN project, the technology centre “will roll out artificial intelligence-powered hybrid models for monitoring and studying the quality of the effluent resulting from water treatment along with the evolution of the vegetation cycle of the crop on which the project tests are carried out,” notes Edgar Rubión Soler, a researcher at Eurecat’s Applied Artificial Intelligence Unit.
Eurecat is also to develop the fleet management algorithms for autonomous robots which “will plan the robots’ routes and resources to optimise use of crop water resources by factoring in real-time data on the tasks to be performed, soil conditions and monitoring needs,” says Carlos Rizzo, a researcher at Eurecat’s Robotics and Automation Unit.
This project is part of ‘TransMisiones’, an initiative by the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) and the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI) which coordinates funding for groups of businesses and clusters of research and knowledge sharing organisations which team up to jointly implement coordinated R&D actions in response to environmental challenges including enhancing water management.
