BRINERECOVERY, the circular economy project which unites CADAGUA with MIT

Last April, the meeting between Cadagua and the MIT research team followed the planning of the " Seawater Desalination Brine Stream Byproduct Recovery and Valorization Options (BrineRecovery )" project. This project is within the framework of the circular economy, analysing technical and economic viability of recovery and assessment desalination plant brine of products that can be used in their operation (e.g., sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid). During this visit, follow-up meetings were held at the offices of Cadagua in Bilbao and Madrid, as well as at the Desalinizadora de Valdelentisco in Cartagena (Murcia). Representing Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the meetings were attended by John H Lienhard, Director of Abdul Latif Jameel of World Water and Food Security Lab, (J-WAF); Director of the Centre for Clean Water & Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM, Amit Kumar, Research Scientist (Department of Mechanical Engineering) and David Warsinger, Postdoctoral Associate (Department of Mechanical Engineering). Representing Cadagua, conference participants were Francisco del Molino, Director of Quality, Environment and R&D, Alberto Letona, Director of R&D Department, Alicia Gómez, Technician from R&D Department and Raúl Marco Plant Director of VAldelentisco's Desalination Plant. Finally, representing Ferrovial was Laura Saralegui, Head of Innovation Projects. In the offices of Cadagua Bilbao, there were both Project follow-up meetings and exchange sessions and exploration of opportunities for future collaborations. In the latter objective, members of the Cadagua R&D departments actively participated. Specific project management and monitoring sessions were held in the Madrid offices. Finally, in the Valdelentisco IDAM, a detailed technical visit to the desalination plant took place, since it is in this facility that the technological solution developed in the framework of this project is planned. Following the aforementioned visit, a closing meeting of shared days was held, identifying the conclusions to be implemented in the project's development, in order to complete Milestone 2 (process modelling). The next face-to-face meeting (between Cadagua and MIT) is scheduled to be held in Boston (USA) next October.