Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/988277
Name of the project/ initiative/technology Name Result Building an Innovative Renewable Energy Ecosystem GENeco (Wessex Water) Finalist Aberystwyth Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) Sludge Project Welsh Water Capital Delivery Alliance Finalist HUBER Disc Thickener S-DISC at Stratfield Milcote STW HUBER Technology Finalist INCOVER Isle Utilities and Aimen Winner Name of the initiative Name Result "Together we know h2ow" – A water and farming partnership initiative to secure long-term water resilience South East Water Winner Integrated Water Supply Grid Wessex Water Services Finalist Resilient and Dynamically Adaptive Water Distribution Networks for a Sustainable Future Bristol Water, Cla-Val & Imperial College London Finalist Super Splash Heroes Northumbrian Water Finalist Energy Efficiency Monitoring System (EEMS) Anglian Water Services Finalist Sludge & Resource Recovery Initiative of the Year Water Resilience Initiative of the Year Sludge & Resource Recovery Initiative of the Year WINNER South East Water – Together we know H2Ow South East Water took the first-ever Water Resilience Initiative of the Year award with this collaborative project to reduce the levels of metaldehyde in catchments. The water company took the unusual step of embedding expert staff from Natural England into its environmental team as catchment sensitive farming officers. The expanded team then carried out a comprehensive communications programme with farmers, aimed at changing behaviour on their use of slug pellets and other pesticides. The programme included face-to-face visits where team members conducted demonstrations of alternatives to metaldehyde. Since the project began it has engaged with 210 farms a year, helping to improve water quality at 51 out of 75 sample points where metaldehyde was previously found. WINNER INCOVER – Isle Utilities & Aimen The Sludge & Resource Recovery Initiative of the Year – a new category for the awards in 2018 – went to Isle Utilities and Aimen for their involvement in the INCOVER project. INCOVER (Innovative Eco-Technologies for Resource Recovery from Wastewater) is a three-year collaborative project, worth 7.2M Euros and funded by the European Commission, involving 18 partner organisations from seven countries in Europe. It is developing innovative and sustainable added-value technologies for recovering nitrogen, phosphorus, biomethane and energy as well as water for irrigation; the resources are being used to make useful products such as bio-plastics, citric acid, biofertilizer, biochar and activated carbon. The project is due to complete in May 2019, and has already demonstrated some impressive results, including a 70% nutrient recovery rate from wastewater using functionalised hybrid polymeric materials as sorbents. Water Resilience Initiative of the Year What the judges said: "This project reveals innovative thinking in a field in which there is a lot of focus at the moment. It provides a glimpse of how circular economy solutions can be applied to eliminate waste in a process." What the judges said: "It's great to see the water sector and agriculture working together effectively and this is an excellent example of how collaboration between varied stakeholders can have multiple benefits." 13