New research and development will stimulate water industry innovation

15 October 2012

Grants totalling over £2·5m have been awarded for seven major collaborative research and development projects that aim to deliver innovation to help safeguard future water supplies.

Funded jointly by the Technology Strategy Board, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Natural Environment Research Council and Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, the projects will address overseas and UK water security challenges. The total cost of the projects, including contributions from the participating companies, is in excess of £5·6m.

Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said, "The sustainable and secure supply of water is a major challenge for modern societies. This presents innovation opportunities in water for UK businesses, particularly in the export market and for companies in the supply chain. The research and development we are funding will help UK companies improve their access to global water markets."

The research and development activity to be supported by the government funding aims to find innovative solutions to help secure our planet's future water supply, while at the same time turning this challenge into a market opportunity by developing profitable new ways to use our current water sources more effectively.

The collaborative projects will be led by Arvia Technology Ltd, Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, Cambrensis Ltd, Halcrow Group Ltd, KEE Process Ltd, Quest UAV and Watershed Associates Ltd.

All of the companies have been set the tough challenge of creating a new technology or process that will either save or recycle 1,000 million litres per day worth of water - equivalent to roughly the same volume of water it would take to fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Arvia Technology (Cheshire) has developed award-winning technology for the destruction of organics in water and wastewater using a patented adsorbent material. Their project will investigate the properties of the process for the treatment and reuse of industrial process water, in order to prove the technology at a large scale.

The SAVE Water project led by Balfour Beatty (Sheffield) will develop the first in-pipe assessment vehicle which will work in live conditions, delivering a full sensing package of optical and acoustic inspection while also carrying out a complete structural assessment of the pipe material and any associated linings.

The consortium led by Cambrensis (Shrewsbury) plans to apply and test an intelligent information and communication technologies system for "real time abstraction and discharge monitoring". This will create a flexible system to optimise water resource management and replace the current outdated licensing system.

Halcrow's (Swindon) HYDRA project will develop a software platform for water resource management, an open and flexible system where data management, display, user interaction, and solution engines will be standardised and shared for advanced water resource planning. HYDRA will enable vast gains in water security to be achieved by integrating management and strategic planning.

The MICROCAT (microwave assisted catalytic treatment of agricultural wastewater) project led by KEE Process Ltd (Aylesbury) aims to develop step-change technology for the treatment and recycling of agricultural and industrial wastewaters which offers a potential global saving of up to 17,000 million litres per day of fresh water.

The QuestEarthWater project, led by Quest UAV (Northumberland), will develop a new integrated unmanned aerial vehicle for assessing hidden water supplies. The 'drone' will deploy imaging sensors that can capture very detailed pictures of the landscape so that hidden water resources can be quantified.

The Smart Leakage Detection Pipes project, led by Watershed Associates (Leighton Buzzard), will develop an easy to install leak detection system for existing and new water pipes. Using self-contained sensor nodes on the outside of the pipe, the system will detect changes in pressure and vibration to indicate the formation of leaks and their location as they occur.

Further information

Nick Sheppard or TSB Press Office
Media Relations
Technology Strategy Board
Mob: 07824 599644

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. The Technology Strategy Board is the UK's innovation agency. Its goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy.

2. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) is a government department in the UK that makes policy and legislation. Defra works with others to deliver policies in areas such as:

the natural environment, biodiversity, plants and animals
sustainable development and the green economy
food, farming and fisheries
animal health and welfare
environmental protection and pollution control
rural communities and issues

3. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is the UK's main agency for funding and managing world-class research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences. It coordinates some of the world's most exciting research projects, tackling major issues such as climate change, environmental influences on human health, the genetic make-up of life on earth, and much more. NERC receives around £300m a year from the government's science budget, which it uses to fund research and training in universities and its own research centres.

4. The Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK's main agency for funding research in engineering and physical sciences. EPSRC invests around £800m a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC works alongside other research councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The research councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.

Press release: 27/12

New research and development will stimulate water industry innovation

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