Drinking water from sugar beet thanks to NEW WATER
Smart Hub Flemish Brabant as a pioneer in circular water solutions for the food industry.
Tienen, together with other pilot sites in Europe, will test out the drinking water supply of the future in the just approved project NEW WATER. The project responds to an urgent challenge: due to increasing drought, traditional drinking water sources are increasingly failing both households and industry. NEW WATER investigates how we can turn wastewater, rainwater and polluted surface water into safe drinking water.
Interreg North-West Europe is investing almost 4 million euro in this ambitious project. For the pilot plant in Tienen, which purifies wastewater from sugar beet processing to drinking water quality, over 1.3 million euro has been provided. Sugar beet consists of 75% water. As a result, Tienen Sugar Refinery generates a billion litres of wastewater every year - good for about 400 Olympic swimming pools. Thanks to NEW WATER, Tiense Suikerraffinaderij, De Watergroep and KU Leuven will demonstrate how this residual stream can be converted into drinking water. Together with previous support from ERDF Flanders and the Flemish Environment Agency - amounting to more than 3 million euros - and additional investments from Tiense Suikerraffinaderij and De Watergroep, we are realising here a total investment of millions of euros to build a resilient water system. After scaling up, drinking water from this new source can supply up to 10,000 families in Flemish Brabant.
The province of Flemish Brabant and POM Flemish Brabant are taking the lead in NEW WATER. We coordinate, connect companies and knowledge institutions, and ensure that innovation does not remain in a lab, but makes an impact in practice. This project fits seamlessly with our Smart Hub Food and Smart Hub Cleantech strategy: linking sustainability to entrepreneurship and international cooperation.
That international cooperation is crucial. NEW WATER is a European project with 16 partners, including drinking water companies, knowledge institutes and companies from Flanders, the Netherlands, Germany and France. We are learning from water innovator VITO and from pilot sites in The Hague, Dendermonde, Almelo, Enschede, Trier and Loudéac. The pilot plant in Tienen is unique in north-western Europe and the Flemish Brabant partners will play a leading role in this prestigious European project.
NEW WATER is more than technology. It is a lever for anchoring companies, for innovation and for a stronger business climate. Thanks to European support and co-financing, we are realising here a major investment in new water solutions that not only make an impact locally, but can also be rolled out to other food companies, water technology suppliers and governments.
