From sensor suppliers and analysis teams to integrators and operators, the expert group brings together members active across industrial (waste)water value chains. The mission? To exchange knowledge, identify trends, and keep companies and governments up to date on legislation so innovations can be implemented faster in practice. Members meet several times per year, attend trade fairs together, give presentations, and actively engage in dialogue with policymakers and the market. This combination is meant to create impact beyond the group itself: the expert group aims to show the complete picture of what is already technically and organisationally possible—and how it works in real factories.
“Make sure you truly understand what’s in your streams”
Water scarcity has been a major topic in the industrial water sector for several years now. (Waste)water reuse can play a crucial role in future water supply. The approach must be simple and pragmatic: first understand exactly what flows through the pipes, then decide how to treat and reuse it.
Nevertheless, according to Van Veen—chair of the expert group and Sales Manager at CirTec B.V., specialist in solid–liquid separation in (waste)water treatment—many industrial companies lack a clear picture of their own water streams.
“Make sure you truly understand what’s in your streams. Only then can you properly assess whether you need an additional treatment step, whether you can reuse water directly, or whether it can be used elsewhere in the process.”
In sectors like plastics recycling, this may mean circulating wash water more often—but only when quality is continuously monitored and processes are intelligently adjusted using measurement and control technologies. In municipal wastewater treatment, she highlights the early removal of fibres (toilet paper) as an illustrative source-control principle.
“Separating early generates a valuable resource and increases downstream treatment capacity by reducing sludge and energy loads. These ‘water-mining’ solutions require data: knowing how much, when, and how polluted influent enters allows you to buffer, modulate, or temporarily shut down parts of the process.”
“Detection of heavy metals like zinc and chromium is already within reach”
Operational benefits
The expert group includes several suppliers of sensor technologies—an increasingly important field, says Van Veen.
“With the group’s broad expertise in both industrial and municipal wastewater treatment, and the availability of advanced monitoring and control equipment, we are well positioned to provide the water-using and water-treating sectors with expert advice. This enables them to monitor, adjust, and optimise their water-related processes.”
Art Lobs, member of the expert group and Managing Director of Verhoeve Nederland B.V., notes that measurement technologies are evolving quickly.
“Parameters such as COD and flow rates are widely available and more reliable than ever,” he says. “Detection of several heavy metals, such as zinc and chromium, is already within reach. For substances of very high concern (SVHCs), lab analyses are still often required, and clear regulatory interpretation of limits and targets remains essential.”
Data should not only support compliance but primarily enable operational improvements: better process control, predictive maintenance, and adaptive treatment strategies.
“AI could help identify patterns in time-series data and stabilise processes. In the day-to-day reality of a treatment plant or factory, daily rhythms are crucial: at night, you may receive a different mix of wastewater than during the morning peak. When you understand and measure this, you can scale systems up or down, buffer flows, or temporarily slow down processes,” says Lobs.
"We shouldn’t immediately treat wastewater as waste "
“Measure what is necessary, maintain control of storage and access, and connect externally only when needed”
Cybersecurity concerns
Cybersecurity is another major topic within the expert group. As soon as installations send data externally, companies tend to become cautious, Van Veen explains.
“The answer is pragmatic: security by design and data minimisation. Measure what’s necessary, retain control over storage and access, and connect externally only when required. In this way, safety is ensured while operators still benefit from dashboards, alarms, and trending—without unnecessary risks.”
What is still holding back wider deployment of sensors, AI, and cybersecurity? Not the technology, the members say, but the way projects are organised and secured.
“The water sector suffers from a ‘duck test syndrome’,” Lobs explains. “Everyone supplies one gadget or component, but truly integrated designers and service providers are rare. That’s why we want to strengthen collaboration between sensor suppliers, data specialists, and integrators: consortia capable of scaling from pilot to full-scale plant and taking responsibility for performance.”
Reference projects must show how sensors, models, and AI can work seamlessly together.
“We need political pressure or direction to rethink how we value water”
A political message
There is also a task for policymakers, Van Veen believes. The political message from the expert group: make industrial reuse the default. That starts, she says, with clear rules.
“We support stimulating—and where appropriate, mandating—online monitoring of critical parameters for discharges and internal reuse processes. This allows operations and permitting to be based on facts rather than occasional sampling.”
Additionally, simplifying and accelerating the procedures for end-of-waste status is crucial; circular business cases too often get stuck in legal grey areas, even when recovered streams are demonstrably clean and usable.
“There should be political pressure or clear direction to reconsider how we value water,” says Van Veen. The relatively low price of drinking water still plays a role. As long as drinking water remains cheap and continuous monitoring is not strongly enforced, the lowest bid often wins over the smart, data-driven solution with a better total cost of ownership.
“That’s exactly why we believe a level playing field is needed: clear frameworks for monitoring and reuse, so that quality and long-term resilience are weighed alongside purchase price.”