ACCIONA Agua has different pilot plants for developing the different research projects. The Tordera plant (Barcelona), San Pedro del Pinatar plant (Alicante, Spain) or Monterey plant (California) are worthy of mention amongst them. Different advanced pre-treatment alternatives are being studied there for the desalination of seawater using ultra and micro-filtration membranes and different reverse osmosis membranes are being assessed as regards their performance in water producing, high conversion studies, boron removal and minimising energy costs. Different advanced disinfection systems are also being studied.

We also have different pilot facilities for studying the application of membrane technology in treatment and re-use. In this sphere, the Almuñecar plant (Granada, Spain), Bakio plant (Vizcaya, Spain) or South-east plant (Gran Canaria, Spain) are leaders and membrane biological reactor technology (MRB) is being studied in them as are treatment and advanced oxidation processes and removal of persistent organic compounds such as endocrine disruptors.

As a result of the research work undertaken, more than 14 patents have been registered, relating to the technologies of desalination, membrane biological reactors and re-use.