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Ref: RDRES20260520002
Caduca: 20/05/2027
Descripción
AquaTexIA seeks to validate a smart green-grey infrastructure for regenerating complex textile wastewater and converting it into safe water for industrial reuse or controlled environmental return. They are looking for a textile end user and an organization with expertise in KPI measurement, impact assessment, scaling, and dissemination, preferably from Spain or Portugal.
Title
AquaTexIA: intelligent and circular regeneration of wastewater from the textile sector
Abstract
The company is leading AquaTexIA, a collaborative R&D project to develop and validate a modular, digitized, and reconfigurable infrastructure capable of regenerating complex textile wastewater and transforming it into a safe, traceable, and reusable water resource. The company will contribute its expertise in process engineering, integration of treatment technologies, design and assembly of pilot plants, automation, sensor technology, SCADA/IoT, real-world operation, and operational strategy.
The challenge addressed is critical for the textile industry: high water demand, increasing pressure on water sources and discharges, the need to reduce water footprint, and the difficulty of reusing effluents from dyeing, spinning, finishing, washing, textile finishing, industrial laundry, or other wet processes. These effluents may contain COD/TOC, color, turbidity, salts/conductivity, ammonia nitrogen, surfactants, dyes, microfibers, microplastics, PFAS, metals, and other emerging or recalcitrant contaminants that limit the effectiveness of conventional treatments.
AquaTexIA does not require industrial users to be water treatment experts: their value lies in providing a real-world case study, outlining their reuse needs and operating conditions. The solution will combine advanced grey technologies such as electrocoagulation, MBR/MABR, advanced oxidation with O3, O3/H2O2, or O3/UV, adsorption, and UF/NF membranes, with a final green barrier based on natural solutions, such as wetlands, biofilters, or naturalized ponds. The system will adapt to effluent variability, maximize water recovery, and aim for a quality compatible with internal industrial uses, auxiliary services, cleaning, non-critical processes, or controlled environmental return where applicable.
The smart layer will integrate real-time monitoring, data acquisition and governance, a SCADA web application, actuators, cybersecurity criteria, hybrid predictive models, and an AI-based autonomous control agent. This agent will recommend or adjust operating parameters to optimize reclaimed water quality, energy consumption, reagent usage, membrane fouling, maintenance, and operational continuity.
3-4 m³/h prototype in a relevant industrial environment, with an approximate evolution from TRL 4 to TRL 7. The technical objectives include overall recovery >=90-92%, turbidity <=1 NTU, COD <=10 mg/L, TOC <=0.5 mg/L, NH₄-N <=0.1 mg/L, conductivity adjusted to use, sum of metals <=50 micrograms/L, removal of emerging micro-contaminants >=90%, availability >90% and a 15-30% reduction in specific energy consumption through digital optimization.
The planned consortium: The company will lead the architecture, engineering, integration, piloting, instrumentation, validation, and operation. The participation of technology centers and partners specializing in secure digitization, AI, cyber resilience, membranes, advanced characterization, analytics, and environmental validation is also anticipated.
Funding: The proposal is primarily aimed at Horizon Europe, as well as other European R&D&I programs related to water resilience, zero pollution, the circular economy, industrial symbiosis, digitalization, and environmental innovation. The specific call for proposals, identifier, link, and deadline will be confirmed before submission.
Partners sought: (1) an end-user industrial textile user, preferably in Spain or Portugal, capable of providing real effluents, operational data, and a validation site/case study; and (2) a consultancy, cluster, industry association, or facilitating entity to lead on KPIs, impact, scalability, replicability, transfer, and dissemination. The consortium is open to other EU or associated countries if there is a solid industrial case study that can add value to the proposal.
Advantages and innovation
AquaTexIA proposes an integrated and demonstrable innovation that combines advanced regeneration, a green barrier, sensors, SCADA/IoT, cybersecurity, predictive models, and AI-powered autonomous control in a decentralized infrastructure validated with real textile effluent. For the industry, the expected outcome is not only improved compliance with discharge regulations but also a practical way to reuse water, reduce regulatory exposure, and enhance its ESG positioning.
Environmental impact: reduced conventional water intake, target final discharge <10%, elimination >=90% of emerging micro-pollutants and support for water circularity strategies.
Technical impact: recovery >=90-92%, high-quality reclaimed water, availability >90%, and adaptive response to dyeing/finishing campaigns, matrix changes, and extreme events.
Economic impact: projected 15-30% reduction in specific energy consumption and optimization of reagents, maintenance, and soiling.
Market impact: replicable demonstrator in Iberian and European textile hubs with water stress representative of the sector.
Technical Specification or Expertise Sought
Two clearly complementary partner profiles are being sought.
1) End-user industrial user in the textile sector. This could be a dyeing, finishing, washing, or fine textile company, an industrial laundry, a garment manufacturer using wet processes, an integrated textile producer, or an industrial group with representative effluents. Their main contribution will be to transform AquaTexIA into a real-world demonstrator, not just a laboratory test. They are expected to provide real samples and/or flow rates of textile wastewater, water consumption data, production variability, campaigns, discharges, current costs, regulatory limits, and potential internal uses of reclaimed water.
The industrial user will participate in defining the use case, test protocol, acceptance criteria, quality requirements, installation conditions, connection to auxiliary services, safety, and internal permits. They will also collaborate on sampling, KPI validation, testing in recommendation/supervised/autonomous modes, process compatibility assessment, identification of adoption barriers, CAPEX/OPEX estimation at scale, and defining the business case for future commercial implementation.
2) Consulting firm, cluster, sector association, or facilitating entity. Its role will be to strengthen the impact, scalability, and sector transfer. It is expected to lead or support the framework of technical, environmental, economic, and social indicators; the LCA/LCC/LCSA assessment; the scalability and replicability analysis; the identification of regulatory and market barriers; the deployment roadmap; the connection with textile companies, government agencies, utilities, and other stakeholders; and the communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities.
Partners from Spain and Portugal will be prioritized due to their relevance to water stress and their potential to build an Iberian demonstration case. Partners from other EU countries or those associated with Horizon Europe will also be considered if they contribute industrial capacity, operational commitment, sector visibility, or access to textile ecosystems with a high need for water reuse.
Framework program
Horizon Europe
Call title and identifier
Target call pending selection/confirmation. Preferred fit: Horizon Europe - Cluster 6, destination Clean environment and zero pollution, and topics related to water resilience, water decontamination, safe reuse, industrial circularity, industrial symbiosis
Submission and evaluation scheme
Anticipated project budget
Preliminary estimate: 3.0-4.5 M€
Coordinator required
No
Deadline for EoI
Deadline of the call
Project duration in weeks
144
Web link to the call
Pending confirmation when the specific call is selected
Project title and acronym
Smart green-grey infrastructure for circular regeneration and safe reuse of textile wastewater.
Acronym: AquaTexIA.
The challenge addressed is critical for the textile industry: high water demand, increasing pressure on water sources and discharges, the need to reduce water footprint, and the difficulty of reusing effluents from dyeing, spinning, finishing, washing, textile finishing, industrial laundry, or other wet processes. These effluents may contain COD/TOC, color, turbidity, salts/conductivity, ammonia nitrogen, surfactants, dyes, microfibers, microplastics, PFAS, metals, and other emerging or recalcitrant contaminants that limit the effectiveness of conventional treatments.
AquaTexIA does not require industrial users to be water treatment experts: their value lies in providing a real-world case study, outlining their reuse needs and operating conditions. The solution will combine advanced grey technologies such as electrocoagulation, MBR/MABR, advanced oxidation with O3, O3/H2O2, or O3/UV, adsorption, and UF/NF membranes, with a final green barrier based on natural solutions, such as wetlands, biofilters, or naturalized ponds. The system will adapt to effluent variability, maximize water recovery, and aim for a quality compatible with internal industrial uses, auxiliary services, cleaning, non-critical processes, or controlled environmental return where applicable.
The smart layer will integrate real-time monitoring, data acquisition and governance, a SCADA web application, actuators, cybersecurity criteria, hybrid predictive models, and an AI-based autonomous control agent. This agent will recommend or adjust operating parameters to optimize reclaimed water quality, energy consumption, reagent usage, membrane fouling, maintenance, and operational continuity.
3-4 m³/h prototype in a relevant industrial environment, with an approximate evolution from TRL 4 to TRL 7. The technical objectives include overall recovery >=90-92%, turbidity <=1 NTU, COD <=10 mg/L, TOC <=0.5 mg/L, NH₄-N <=0.1 mg/L, conductivity adjusted to use, sum of metals <=50 micrograms/L, removal of emerging micro-contaminants >=90%, availability >90% and a 15-30% reduction in specific energy consumption through digital optimization.
The planned consortium: The company will lead the architecture, engineering, integration, piloting, instrumentation, validation, and operation. The participation of technology centers and partners specializing in secure digitization, AI, cyber resilience, membranes, advanced characterization, analytics, and environmental validation is also anticipated.
Funding: The proposal is primarily aimed at Horizon Europe, as well as other European R&D&I programs related to water resilience, zero pollution, the circular economy, industrial symbiosis, digitalization, and environmental innovation. The specific call for proposals, identifier, link, and deadline will be confirmed before submission.
Partners sought: (1) an end-user industrial textile user, preferably in Spain or Portugal, capable of providing real effluents, operational data, and a validation site/case study; and (2) a consultancy, cluster, industry association, or facilitating entity to lead on KPIs, impact, scalability, replicability, transfer, and dissemination. The consortium is open to other EU or associated countries if there is a solid industrial case study that can add value to the proposal.
Advantages and innovation
AquaTexIA proposes an integrated and demonstrable innovation that combines advanced regeneration, a green barrier, sensors, SCADA/IoT, cybersecurity, predictive models, and AI-powered autonomous control in a decentralized infrastructure validated with real textile effluent. For the industry, the expected outcome is not only improved compliance with discharge regulations but also a practical way to reuse water, reduce regulatory exposure, and enhance its ESG positioning.
Environmental impact: reduced conventional water intake, target final discharge <10%, elimination >=90% of emerging micro-pollutants and support for water circularity strategies.
Technical impact: recovery >=90-92%, high-quality reclaimed water, availability >90%, and adaptive response to dyeing/finishing campaigns, matrix changes, and extreme events.
Economic impact: projected 15-30% reduction in specific energy consumption and optimization of reagents, maintenance, and soiling.
Market impact: replicable demonstrator in Iberian and European textile hubs with water stress representative of the sector.
Technical Specification or Expertise Sought
Two clearly complementary partner profiles are being sought.
1) End-user industrial user in the textile sector. This could be a dyeing, finishing, washing, or fine textile company, an industrial laundry, a garment manufacturer using wet processes, an integrated textile producer, or an industrial group with representative effluents. Their main contribution will be to transform AquaTexIA into a real-world demonstrator, not just a laboratory test. They are expected to provide real samples and/or flow rates of textile wastewater, water consumption data, production variability, campaigns, discharges, current costs, regulatory limits, and potential internal uses of reclaimed water.
The industrial user will participate in defining the use case, test protocol, acceptance criteria, quality requirements, installation conditions, connection to auxiliary services, safety, and internal permits. They will also collaborate on sampling, KPI validation, testing in recommendation/supervised/autonomous modes, process compatibility assessment, identification of adoption barriers, CAPEX/OPEX estimation at scale, and defining the business case for future commercial implementation.
2) Consulting firm, cluster, sector association, or facilitating entity. Its role will be to strengthen the impact, scalability, and sector transfer. It is expected to lead or support the framework of technical, environmental, economic, and social indicators; the LCA/LCC/LCSA assessment; the scalability and replicability analysis; the identification of regulatory and market barriers; the deployment roadmap; the connection with textile companies, government agencies, utilities, and other stakeholders; and the communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities.
Partners from Spain and Portugal will be prioritized due to their relevance to water stress and their potential to build an Iberian demonstration case. Partners from other EU countries or those associated with Horizon Europe will also be considered if they contribute industrial capacity, operational commitment, sector visibility, or access to textile ecosystems with a high need for water reuse.
Framework program
Horizon Europe
Call title and identifier
Target call pending selection/confirmation. Preferred fit: Horizon Europe - Cluster 6, destination Clean environment and zero pollution, and topics related to water resilience, water decontamination, safe reuse, industrial circularity, industrial symbiosis
Submission and evaluation scheme
Anticipated project budget
Preliminary estimate: 3.0-4.5 M€
Coordinator required
No
Deadline for EoI
Deadline of the call
Project duration in weeks
144
Web link to the call
Pending confirmation when the specific call is selected
Project title and acronym
Smart green-grey infrastructure for circular regeneration and safe reuse of textile wastewater.
Acronym: AquaTexIA.