On Tuesday 20 December, at an event exclusively for members at Adoberia Bella, Leather Cluster Barcelona held an information session on the water cycle.

The session consisted of three distinct parts: the first, to explain how climate change affects the water cycle; the second, to explain how a biological water treatment system such as that of the Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació (IDR) water treatment plant works; and a final part to present the Water Regeneration Station project at IDR and the launch of the pilot plant to regenerate and recirculate treated water.

The information session began with a presentation by Toni Cuevas, CEO and founder of the Igualada-based company Waterologies, an engineering firm dedicated to developing innovation projects in water treatment and in the reuse of water in industrial processes. Waterologies collaborates with national and international technology centres, which has earned its products recognition at Silicon Valley technology forums such as Techcrunch.

Toni Cuevas began his presentation by pointing out that in 2015 the World Economic Forum identified the water emergency as the main risk facing humanity in the coming years. We are currently suffering the consequences of climate change, with continuous episodes of drought causing rivers and reservoirs all over the world to fall to historic lows. And the problem is not only that there is very little rainfall, but that aquifers and wells everywhere are running dry and cannot be recharged.

In this respect, Cuevas of Waterologies, the company that designed the pilot plant to regenerate the water from the IDR treatment plant, stressed the importance of this IDR project for giving treated water a second life: "this project will not only transform the city of Igualada's relationship with the river Anoia but will also serve as an example of sustainability for other cities with similar industries".

Next to speak was Bernat Vilarrubias, manager of the company Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació SL (IDR) and president of Leather Cluster Barcelona, who explained in a highly graphic and illustrative way how a biological water treatment system such as that of the IDR plant works.

The treatment plant of Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació S.L. (IDR), one of the pioneering plants in Europe for the treatment of industrial wastewater, treats every day the water generated in the leather transformation process by the 28 tanning companies in Igualada that are members of Leather Cluster Barcelona, together with part of the urban water and water from other industries. IDR also contributes knowledge on good water management and water saving to the whole cluster.

Vilarrubias then explained how, within the horizon of Zero Waste in the tanning industry and in a context in which the growing problem of water supply in Catalonia is a serious concern, the Igualada tanners' treatment plant, Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació S.L. (IDR), is working on the introduction of a Water Regeneration Station (ERA).

This ambitious project to build a Water Regeneration Station (ERA) consists of treating the effluent from the IDR treatment plant (the water leaving the plant once already treated) in order to obtain a flow of osmosis-treated water (practically pure water) and another of salt water, both reusable by the tanning industry or for other purposes. In this respect, the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) has for years been committed to the use of non-conventional resources in order to increase water security and availability. One of these is regenerated water, obtained by applying an additional treatment to water that has already been treated, using facilities known as tertiary treatments or Water Regeneration Stations (ERA). Through treatments such as reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration, these tertiary facilities give the water a quality suitable for various uses.

One of the difficulties presented by water regeneration stations is the treatment of the salt fraction that comes out as reject. In IDR's case it is expected that this flow can be reused, since tanning companies need salt for their process.

Through these tertiary treatments, the ACA currently regenerates 39 hm3/year in Catalonia. With this project IDR plans to regenerate up to 0.5 hm3/year (almost 1.4 million litres a day) and has already taken the first step, with the launch of a pilot plant to regenerate treated water.

The plant has two phases. The first is a pre-treatment stage to prepare the water so that it can enter a membrane system, and the second consists of passing the water through different types of state-of-the-art membranes to separate the water from the salt and other elements present, in various stages such as nanofiltration and osmosis.

Over the course of a year, the automated pilot plant will generate 10 m3 of osmosis-treated water and 2 m3 of salt water a day. Different membrane options, their performance and all the auxiliary systems will be tested. The water obtained will be analysed at the A3 Leather Innovation Center research and innovation centre of the University of Lleida in order to verify its quality and its suitability for the leather tanning process, and the water will then be supplied by tanker to various companies, which will assess how it behaves in their respective processes.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.