Community of Practice Kicks off in Kalundborg

By: Anne Kleyböcker

The Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis Association was established in 1972 and links seventeen private and public companies. The local industrial sector includes petrochemicals, light construction materials, food, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, energy and bioenergy, and waste processing. Several circular economy approaches for water, energy and materials have already been implemented, such as reuse of cooling water for steam production, reuse of gypsum from flue gas cleaning for plasterboard production, integrated heat management and transfer between industries and the district heating network, and heat recovery from process water for district heating. Although the Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis already recovers and reuses certain materials, water and energy, there are still opportunities to intensify and expand the circular economy related strategies. Therefore, the ULTIMATE project (GA 869318) focused on the recovery of water from the wastewater treatment plant effluent as cooling water in the industry. A water reclamation pilot plant was designed, built and optimised using different configurations to demonstrate the most appropriate concept for the very unique and challenging effluent composition. Communities of Practice (COPs) were established within this framework. 

The COPs bring together different stakeholders such as the case study partners, public and private companies of the Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis, local politicians/decision makers, authorities, educational institutions, utilities and other companies in the water sector. The COPs were used to share and discuss the positive results of the pilot in terms of performance, life cycle assessment and human health risk assessment. In addition, operators of other full-scale reclamation plants from Tarragona (ES), Rosignano (IT) and Koyambedu (the largest water reclamation plant in IN) shared their experiences and insights with us. We invited the "Energy and Water Agency" from Malta to talk about the development of the regulatory framework for water reuse in Malta and to learn from the successful "Infiltration of WWTP effluent" plant in Torrelle (BE). The knowledge exchange at the COPs contributed significantly to a positive perception of water reuse among stakeholders. Therefore, the COPs will be continued in the framework of RECREATE (GA 101136598).

On 28 October 2024 we held our first RECREATE COP. 29 participants from the food/biotech and pharmaceutical industries, the water sector and utilities, as well as public authorities attended our workshop. We presented the results of ULTIMATE from all nine case studies to update our stakeholders on the latest developments in circular economy technologies and concepts. There was interest in some of the technologies and contact details for the suppliers were exchanged. We also presented the new RECREATE project. In RECREATE, climate change impact modelling will characterise the future climatic and environmental conditions in Kalundborg and, based on this, different water management strategies will be developed, modelled and compared. Life cycle and risk assessments will support the decision on how best to adapt the water management strategy. The results will be presented and discussed with stakeholders at the COPs. We look forward to continuing the successful COP approach with our stakeholders.

Publishing date: 2 December 2024

See all related localities

See all related events