Currently, there is no system on the market for the early control of the effects of an industrial spill; however, the environmental and economic risks associated with these spills are enormous.
In this context, the IVERGEST project emerges, whose objective is the development of a tool that monitors the effect of the spill in the receiving channel in real time, which will allow decisions to be made to minimize the impact of the spill if necessary.
The project partners, ZINNAE, Ideya, Arateck and FACSA, They have the collaboration of the Ebro River Basin Authority, which is interested in the project's results and the capabilities of this developed tool. This tool could be incorporated among the best available technologies for activities subject to European and national regulations on integrated pollution prevention and control.
During the project, the discharge process of an industrial facility will be digitized using a hydrodynamic mathematical model and the development of forecasting algorithms. The system will be fed by a sensor network along the riverbed and at the discharge facilities, which has already been installed on the Aragón River by Arateck. Furthermore, this system will also integrate publicly available data, such as that provided by the Automatic Hydrological Information System of the Ebro River Basin.
For their part, FACSA Ideya will contribute its expertise in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations to evaluate the behavior of the discharge under varying channel conditions, taking into account hydrodynamic behavior and knowledge of the orographic conditions. This information will be used by Ideya to develop predictive algorithms that will be incorporated into the digital tool for real-time monitoring and control of the industrial discharge.
In this way, the software will allow industry to modify the discharge conditions to reduce its negative impact on the waterway. The modifications made to the discharge will depend on each situation, including actions such as: temporarily stopping the discharge, altering its frequency, modifying its flow rate, and selecting alternative discharge points.
This project is subsidized thanks to the support aid for innovative business groups from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism in order to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises, with File No: AEI-010500-2021-148.
