Water & Wastewater Treatment

Tony Williams, director at AECOM, is the new chairman of British Water, replacing Mark Lane. Williams was confirmed as chairman at the organisation's AGM, held at Lord's Cricket Ground on 17th June. FLI Water, which provides wastewater technology, in-house offsite fabrication and associated mechanical / electrical services for the municipal water and industrial sectors, has recruited Duncan Wildgoose as business development director. Wildgoose joins from Imtech Water, Waste & Energy, where he was business development manager. George Taylor, former head of innovation at Thames Water, is moving to take up the role of Chief Technology Officer at Isle Utilities. His new role, which starts at the beginning of September, will have both a UK and global remit. Innovation consultancy WRc has recruited Andy Hunt as Commercial Director. Hunt, who has 20 years' experience in utilities including 13 at Southern Water, moves from his most recent role in innovation at Morrison Utility Services. George Butler, Director of Asset Management at Northern Ireland Water, is moving to take up the role of Water & Sanitation Specialist at the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, working on water investments in developing countries. He will be based in Washington DC. www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | AUGUST 2015 | 25 In the know Pre-treating sewage sludge in an autoclave can generate 47% more methane, new research by Dr Zhengjian Wang and Dr Nigel Baily at AeroThermal Group has revealed. The research, Effect of Autoclaving on Anaerobic Biodegradation of Sewage Sludge, has stemmed from three batches of sewage sludge cakes from three different sources being separately treated by autoclaving at 160°C for 45 minutes at Aerothermal's Poole facility. A biochemical methane potential (BMP) test was carried out on both autoclaved and un- autoclaved sewage sludge samples. A semi-continuous anaerobic digestion experiment was also RESEARCH ROUND UP Hanovia has been awarded 3.9M Euro for a project aimed at bringing new ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection to market. Funded by Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme, the aim of the Eco-UV project is to develop groundbreaking UV technology for the treatment of industrial process water and other fluids with increased lamp life and greatly increased Autoclaving to pre- treat sewage creates more methane conducted on both autoclaved and un- autoclaved sewage sludge samples using organic loading rates of 5kg VS/ m³/day with a hydraulic retention time of 15 days. Stable conditions for digesters treating the autoclaved and the un- autoclaved sludges were achieved at this loading rate. Also at this loading rate, bio- methane production from digesting the autoclaved sludge was up to 47% more than that from treating the un-autoclaved sludge. The company said the experiments were carried out in duplication for each tested sample. Two inoculum control digesters were also run alongside, fed with seed sludge and tap water only. The inoculums were prepared by screening (1mm mesh) out large inert and undigested substrates. Three batches of sewage sludge cakes were collected and separately autoclaved at a temperature of 160°C for 45 minutes. Ažer autoclaving, the sludge masses were increased 1.3-1.5 times due to the addition of water (from steam condensing). Also ažer autoclaving, the sludge had a more homogenous slurry-like appearance and was less odorous. It was concluded that stable digester operation is possible at a loading rate of 5kg VS/m³/day, and under these conditions, an autoclaving pre-treatment for anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge cake could increase bio-energy production and facilitate the easy co-processing of multiple 'problematic' streams, such as screenings and scum. AeroThermal CEO Christian Toll said: "We are very excited that we have proven that AeroThermal hydrolysis is an efficient way to produce a higher yield of methane gas, to be used as a source of green energy and go some way to solving the waste problem which is so damaging to our environment." ● 27 Conference preview: Sensing in Water ● 31 Getting to grips: mechanical seals ● 35 Technically speaking: boreholes ● 40 Nuts and bolts: products and services energy efficiency, providing a much lower carbon footprint and reduced environmental impact. Led by UV industry leader Hanovia and partnered by three sector leading organisations - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany; DVGW, the German Gas and Waterworks Association's Centre of Applied Research; and IVL, the Swedish Environmental Research Institute - the project will prove the new UV lamp technology by demonstrating it in real applications, with full characterisation in terms of long-term stability, ageing effects and dose-response- relationship. The UV lamps will be integrated in Hanovia treatment systems; the performance will be evaluated at DVGW and monitored for efficiency by IVL. Testing protocols for different end-user applications will also be derived, which could act as the basis for a future standardised EU validation for industrial UV applications. RISING UP 8 Sept British Water: Innovation for water- only companies, Portsmouth. COMING UP 16 Sept WWT Integrated Water Resource Management, Birmingham 23 Sept SWIG Sensing in Water conference, Nottingham Belfry. 24 Sept Wastewater Network conference, Cranfield University Funding for UV water work

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