Work Packages

Lead: AEE INTEC

Work Package 1 aims at developing and designing the final water treatment concepts for each demo site by:

• Performing water mapping and characterization of wastewater from different demo sites
• Testing the performance of individual modules for the wastewater treatment or energy recovery
• Exploiting the lab-scale results to design the final treatment train
• Six fully functional prototypal modules will be developed and opportunely integrated

Scaling up three operational demonstrators to Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL 6) is in the works for steel, pulp and paper, and chemical industrial facilities. These facilities will be situated in Germany, France, and across various locations in Spain, Netherlands, and Sweden. The objective is to achieve over 90% reduction in wastewater and at least 50% reduction in carbon footprint, aiming for Zero Liquid Discharge solutions.

Lead: BFI

Work Package 2 aims at incorporating smart monitoring and sensors to optimize treatment processes into CORNERSTONE systems, with a primary objective of reducing downtime, minimizing cleaning requirements, enhancing overall process performance, and predicting maintenance risks.

The integration of digital twins for developed technologies and technology trains is validated using real data obtained from two demonstration sites, specifically within the steel and pulp and paper industries.

The ultimate aim is to achieve a greater than 90% accuracy in simulated process problem identification through smart monitoring. Additionally, there is a focus on attaining more than 80% correlation between real data and digital twin predictions for energy and water reuse in the steel and pulp and paper sectors.

Lead: AAU

Work Package 3 aims at the demonstration of pilot-scale technology-trains at three distinct sites representing the steel, pulp and paper, and chemical industries. The focus is on assessing the systems' capabilities in recycling water and valuables, reducing energy demand, and minimizing CO₂ footprint through continuous operation. Main goals are:

• Evaluating the performance of CORNERSTONE systems in treating waters in real industrial environment
• Implementing the smart monitoring tools and digital optimization in real industrial environment
• Investigating opportunities for utilizing the recovered commodities (such as water, solutes, and energy) either internally or externally

Lead: UVic-UCC

Work Package 4 focuses on quantifying and ensuring the sustainability of CORNERSTONE's solutions using a triple bottom line approach (environmental, economic, and social). It encompasses evaluation across eight impact categories: climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, ecotoxicity, freshwater, land use, and water use, with a specific target of achieving a minimum 50% reduction in the carbon footprint indicator. Main steps are:

• Assessing the environmental impact of the technologies and their application through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Utilizing Life Cycle Costing analysis to compare the cost-effectiveness of CORNERSTONE solutions with the technological State of the Art
• Evaluating the socio-economic implications of further implementation through Social-Life Cycle Assessment
• Collaborating with WP1, WP2, and WP3 to attend to process design and optimization, while also contributing to toolbox development in WP5

Lead: 20FP

Work Package 5 is dedicated to the creation of a decision support toolbox. This toolbox is designed to promote the widespread adoption of circular industrial water process technology throughout Europe. The objectives of the exploitation toolbox include:

• Guidance for Mainstream Deployment: Providing step-by-step guidance to facilitate the mainstream deployment of circular industrial water process technology
• Sector-Specific Exploitation Roadmaps: Developing sector-specific exploitation roadmaps to reduce the dependency of the process industry on freshwater by a minimum of 20%

The overarching goals are to achieve a 90% wastewater reuse rate and to valorize existing waste streams by transforming them into valuable products.

The development of an integrated toolbox is composed of the following elements:

• decision support tools for circular industrial water stewardship
• decision support tools for digital industrial water and resource management
• decision support tools for resource recovery

Lead: DECHEMA

The overall aim of Work Package 6 is creating impact through a structured and coordinated communication, dissemination and exploitation strategy. This is reached by:

• Raising awareness of the CORNERSTONE innovations and their benefits and fostering interaction with dissemination to the target groups
• Directing engagement with all target groups to foster co-creation of CORNERSTONE developments and efficient dissemination and exploitation
• Ensuring efficient exploitation of CORNERSTONE developments and applications towards project end and beyond

Lead: AAU

The purpose of Work Package 7 is to establish and maintain a strong governance structure that will facilitate, support, monitor and guide CORNERSTONE’s progress and results throughout its duration of 4 years.

The key responsibilities of WP7 include fostering gender equality and scientific quality, oversee risk management, coordinate project activities, ensure adherence to deadlines and communication efficiency, manage administrative aspects, oversee Open Science and data management compliance with the Do No Significant Harm principle, and handle intellectual property rights and innovation matters for the CORNERSTONE project.