The president of the Council of Tenerife, Pedro Martin, has indicated this Thursday at the Fonsalía desalination plant that the ‘Mides’ project, which is being developed by the Aqualia company in Guía de Isora, will allow “reduce the energy cost in the water desalination processes on the island, one of the most pressing problems in Tenerife “.
‘Mides’ is a research project coordinated by Aqualia and funded by the European Union, which aims to develop a unique and innovative system for obtaining drinking water through advanced desalination processes with low energy costs.
“This project, in which the Cabildo of Tenerife collaborates by handing over the facilities of the Fonsalía desalination plant, it gives us enormous illusion “, said the president, who added that this” is a program that can be interesting for any part of the world, but especially for the Canary Islands and Tenerife “.
In addition, he added that “the achievement of results will allow it to be replicated in other places on the island, helping to reduce energy costs in desalination processes”, and concluded by adding that it is one of the most important research pilots in which the Cabildo de Tenerife has been involved “.
The ‘Mides’ project seeks to achieve low-cost desalination and wastewater treatment simultaneously using MDC (Microbial Desalination Cell) technology.
Specifically, this new system deals with two streams of water, sewage treatment and salt water desalination, taking advantage of wastewater as a resource to produce energy that will be used to desalinate water.
“We have to articulate measures to favor a transition towards a much more sustainable energy model,” said Javier Rodríguez Medina, Minister of Sustainable Development and the fight against Climate Change of the Cabildo de Tenerife.
In this sense, he said, “the Insular Water Council is working decisively, we are the largest consumer of electrical energy on the island and we have achieved an absolute change of paradigm and that is that since 2020 one hundred percent of the energy that apply to CIATF are renewable in nature. ”
He also added that this Guía de Isora facility “is a backbone, that it will be able to adequately treat the wastewater from both Santiago del Teide and Guía de Isora.”
DUBAI EXPO
Apart from Martín, Javier Rodríguez Medina, councilor for Sustainability and the fight against Climate Change of the Cabildo, and Josefa Mesa and Emilio Navarro, mayoress of Guía de Isora and Santiago del Teide respectively, and Javier Davara were also present at the presentation of this project. , CIATF manager, accompanied by Fran Blanco, director of Aqualia in the Canary Islands and Víctor Monsalvo, head of the company’s Eco-efficiency department, who have shared with the main media the progress in the activities carried out in recent months .
The conference ended with a visit to EDAM Fonsalía, where they learned first-hand about the progress of the project and verified the excellent quality of the water obtained in this plant.
With the development of this project, Aqualia reinforces, as a result of its alliance with the Canarian administration, its involvement in the search and development of eco-efficient systems that lead to the continuous improvement of the quality of the services offered by the company.
The ‘Mides’ project, the only water project from the video on Spanish technology that is projected in ‘El Bosque de la Inteligencia’ of the Spain Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020, is part of the strategic lines of the Aqualia Department of Innovation and Technology.
Fonsalía has two technicians dedicated to R&D, working on this and other projects, being one of Aqualia’s R&D project development centers.