Aqualia
Water management
Aqualia is the water management company owned by the citizen services group FCC (51%) and by the Australian ethical fund IFM Investors (49%). Aqualia is Europe’s fourth largest private water company in terms of population served and ranks amongst the top ten worldwide (GWI, November 2017).
It currently provides services to 22.5 million people in 1,100 municipalities in 18 countries: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, United Arab Emirates, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Oman, Panama, Portugal, Qatar, the Czech Republic, Romania and Tunisia. The company reported EUR 1,115 million of revenue in 2018, with an order back log of nearly EUR 15,000 million.
What they do
Aqualia´s activity comprises 3 major areas among which, it creates synergies in knowledge, methodology, research and development, working with local partners and administrations:
- Integral management of public water services.
- Design and construction of all types of water infrastructures.
- Global solutions for the use of water in industry.
The Innovation and Technology Department of AQUA is in charge of over 15 industrially oriented demo projects, and has international activities focusing on Portugal, Italy and the Czech Republic as well as Latin America. Design-Build-Operate Contracts for major water and wastewater infrastructure are currently being executed in Romania, FYR Countries, North Africa and South-America. Moreover, Aqualia has a long experience developing innovative solutions for wastewater treatment, as its main is the management of municipal water services.
Role in project
Aqualia is the coordinator of the DEEP PURPLE project and leader of WP3 and WP8. Its main tasks in the project follow:
- WP1: definition of management strategies for feedstock production from bio-waste streams and quality requirements of bio-waste streams, intermediates and final bio-based products.
- WP3: validation and demonstration of the photobiorefinery concept at demo scale in two demo sites (Spain and Czech Republic).
- WP5: supply of operational data from demo sites’ experience for the delivery of a full LCA, CAPex, OPex and SWOT analysis.
- WP6: contribution to the strategies for stakeholder engagement, development of new business models and market penetration.
- WP7: organization of communication and dissemination activities.
- WP8: effective management and coordination of the project and a transparent Intellectual Property Rights protection.