Optimising external water and energy resources

The objective of AIGANOVA was to optimise the external water and energy resources required for large consumers of water (e.g. hotels) and minimise the overall cost of the life cycle of a water facility. The project focused on the development of a grey water recycling system, called "AIGANOVA". Sherpa Engineering contributed in the design of control systems in three areas: 1) The system approach that includes representation of the steering system and operating system 2) the model-predictive control and energy management 3) the modeling and simulation of a closed-loop system. A study at the Balneotherapy center (a hotel for 240 guests) demonstrated an overall annual gain (including maintenance and repair) of about EUR 80,000 and a return on investment of seven years, with an average grey water recycling rate of about 60%. Societal challenge AIGANOVA addressed two major societal concerns: water consumption and energy use in recycling. AIGANOVA demonstrated the possibility to reduce external water resources by 50-80%. Also heat can be recovered from recycled water, this reduces the operating cost by a factor 3. MELiSSA expertise The water treatment unit built for AIGANOVA was based on MELiSSA expertise from the Antarctic research station "Concordia". The MELiSSA consortium brought partners together with complementary skills to maximise the water recycling integration and development process in a building.