Wetsus

Wetsus, centre of excellence for sustainable water technology (www.wetsus.nl), is performing research aiming for pre-competitive development of entirely new concepts and breakthrough technologies in the field of water treatment. At Wetsus, a unique environment is created where 100 companies worldwide and 20 EU knowledge institutes can participate to create innovative solutions to water-related problems. The institute carries out multidisciplinary research performed by 60 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who are mostly located in the Wetsus laboratories in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.
Salinity-gradient conversion technologies were among the first projects of Wetsus within the research theme “Blue Energy”. Today 3 PhD students are working in this theme (together with their supervisors from universities and Wetsus), and 7 PhD projects have been finished in the period 2009-2015. These projects focused on electricity production from controlled mixing of salt and fresh water by means of ion-selective membranes. Technologies involved include RED and thus represent a great expertise for the success of the project described in this proposal. Wetsus research in this technology has resulted in 10 patent applications.