Good news from the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection: “Water ReUse” is one of the 37 projects considered under the funding guideline “Climate Impact Adaptation Water Management”. The project, which was piloted and planned jointly by Papier- und Kartonfabrik Varel (PKV) and the Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesischer Wasserverband (OOWV), will receive a grant of 500,000 euros. OOWV and PKV are now pushing ahead with the next steps for project planning and approval.
PKV Managing Director Ulrich Lange refers to the “good success” of the pilot test at the Varel wastewater treatment plant. He hopes the funding commitment will have a signal effect. “We hope that this cross-sector approach to resource conservation of not only water but also raw and valuable materials as well as energy and heat will increasingly set an example. There are still many synergies to be leveraged in the cross-industry and cross-company cycles if they are not just tackled individually, but together.”
Kerstin Krömer, project manager at OOWV, sees the funding commitment as a further tailwind for water reuse concepts. According to her, treated wastewater was hardly considered as a resource in Germany for many years. That is currently changing fundamentally, she said. “The increased demand for water in the context of rising hydrogen production will further intensify this development,” says the expert.
In a statement from the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection, the cooperation between PKV and OOWV is described “as an example of the strategic reorientation of water management and the creation of local and regional concepts.” According to Environment Minister Christian Meyer, it shows “what climate impact adaptation in water management can look like.”
Following the funding approval, both PKV and OOWV are now preparing corresponding project applications in their committees. If the green light is given on both sides, the realization of a large-scale plant could start as early as next year. Once completed, up to 975,000 cubic meters could flow from the Varel wastewater treatment plant to the plant about two kilometers away.
The Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection is supporting projects to adapt water management to the effects of the climate crisis and to establish integrated and sustainable water volume management with 8.2 million euros as part of the funding guideline “Climate Impact Adaptation Water Management”. In the first of a total of three application rounds, 37 of the 52 projects submitted have now been approved for funding.
