Best practices for H2O management and savings for BUS operators

Introduction

LIFEH2OBUS will build for the first time a European best practice on water management for bus transport operators to reach the lowest possible water consumption. The best practice will be demonstrated during the project, supported by an innovative software system and will be flexible enough to adapt to different economic and geographical/climate contexts, to be shared and adopted as widely as possible.

Background

This is the first time a major public transportation project focuses on water management, which has been a neglected and underestimated topic in this sector for far too long in favor of alternative mobility power sources. Considering that about 43 million m³ of fresh water are consumed per year in Europe to clean buses, this initiative is crucial.

Proposed Solutions

The idea is to apply three different state-of-the-art solutions, namely:

1. Simple wastewater reclamation
2. Wastewater reclamation in combination with a rainwater harvesting system
3. External waxing without water

These solutions will be compared in three different European locations (at Arriva depots), specifically in Italy, Croatia, and Hungary.

Demonstration and Data Monitoring

For a one-year demonstration, main parameters will be gathered and monitored by means of the Intelligent Garage Management system, which will be customized and implemented by Pluservice.

Operational, environmental, climatic, and economic data will be analyzed and evaluated by University La Sapienza to provide a final matrix between location and techniques with a score of efficiency, pros and cons of their application and costs, accompanied by technical guidelines and case studies.

Expected Outcomes

The average project water saving that LIFEH2OBUS will bring is calculated as an 84% reduction in water consumption for fleet washing. This translates to a reduction of 37 million liters of water consumption and 2.4 GWh of energy saved (not used for pumping water), which equals 1 MtCO2eq within the project.

Conclusion

LIFEH2OBUS will contribute to pushing the transport sector towards its sustainability and circularity while providing the community with guidelines.