Between 20 and 23 June 2022, the 'Desalination for the Environment: Clean Water and Energy' international conference, promoted by the European Desalination Society (EDS), will take place at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with the support of the Spanish Association of Desalination and Reuse (AEDYR) and the Government of the Canary Islands through the DESAL+ Living Lab platform

With more than 160 keynote lectures, framed in 28 thematic sessions and more than 50 poster presentations, this edition of the biennial EDS Conference will once again be the meeting point for worldwide experts and professionals in water management.

Gran Canaria will be the venue for the most important international scientific event on water management and efficiency, the European Desalination Society (EDS) Conference, which will be held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, from June 20 to 23, after being postponed for two years due to the Covid health crisis. This conference on desalination for the environment will be devoted to advances towards providing fresh water for all, at affordable cost and at economical energy requirements, for sustainable development.

This knowledge forum on the optimization of water management, which highlights the water-energy nexus in the future of the desalination sector, will be developed in this edition in close partnership with the Spanish Association of Desalination and Reuse (AEDYR) and the Canarian Government institutions in charge of the DESAL+ Living Lab platform, the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and the Information Society (ACIISI) and the Canary Islands Institute of Technology (ITC), these last two dependent on the Ministry of Economy, Knowledge and Employment.

The DESAL+ LIVING LAB platform, under the leadership of Canary Islands through the public and knowledge agents to promote a network of scientific-technological excellence in the field of desalination, and whose facilities in Gran Canaria allow the testing and validation of innovative projects, has been a key factor in holding this Conference in the Islands, in coordination with the EDS.

The opening ceremony will take place on Tuesday, 21 June, at 9:00 a.m., and will be led by the ITC's R&D&I Director, Gonzalo Piernavieja Izquierdo, on behalf of DESAL+ Living Lab. Also, as part of the opening board, the president of EDS, Ursula Annunziata, the president of AEDyR, Domingo Zarzo Martínez and, on behalf of the Government of the Canary Islands, the director of the ACIISI, Carlos Navarro Martínez will participate. They will be accompanied by the president of the International Desalination Association (IDA), Carlos Cosin, and representatives of the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) of Saudi Arabia and the Island Water Council (CIAGC) of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria.

In the afternoon of 20 June, the Workshop 'Ocean Brine Mining' -dealing with desalination brines valorization- will be held, as well as the workshop 'Artificial intelligence: potentialities and challenges in desalination', supported by scientific members of the DESAL+ Living Lab and E5DES project consortium from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and ITC, where smart water management systems will be discussed.

The conference agenda includes, between June 21 and 23, a total of 28 thematic sessions with more than 160 plenary talks given by professionals and scientists of recognized international prestige, who will share their research results and present the advanced developments with industrial applications in the sector. There will be also an exhibition area with numerous stands that can be visited in parallel with the conferences. Likewise, posters on several subjects will be exhibited and presented by researchers and R&D&I agents.

The agenda of activities will conclude on Thursday afternoon, 23 June, visiting the infrastructures of the desalination test bench of the DESAL+ Living Lab in Gran Canaria, in particular, the ITC facilities in Pozo Izquierdo and PLOCAN (Canary Islands Ocean Platform), in Taliarte.

The Canary Islands archipelago has important water treatment infrastructures and has been a pioneer in the production of desalinated water at affordable cost, economical energy requirements and optimal management of its limited water resources. The international ESD conference is a benchmark for researchers, public bodies, plant managers and operators, universities, research centers and industrial and business sectors interested in water production and reuse technologies.

The Canarian support in this event, via DESAL+ Living Lab, is aligned with the objectives of the DESAL+ and E5DES projects to improve R&D capacities in water management, within the framework of the Macaronesian cooperation financed by Interreg MAC.

More information and registration: https://www.edsoc.com/congress/laspalmas2020/