UK: Thames Water’s new “Tweet a leak” service proves popular

In December 2010, Thames Water requested its social-networking customers to start reporting details of burst or leaking pipes on Twitter.

The UK’s largest water and wastewater company urged customers to ‘tweet a leak’ to its Twitter profile @thameswater using using the #tweetaleak hash tag. In the first four weeks, the service generated over 250 reports about leakages, around 9 a day. Due to the exceptionally cold weather in December, Thames Water was reporting nearly 300 leaks a day, four times the normal number at that time of year.

When the water in reservoirs drops below 5 degrees Celsius and enters Thames Water’s mains, especially the old cast-iron ones, they contract and in some cases break. The colder it gets the worse the problems gets. [...]  More than 20 per cent of London’s water mains are over 150 years old – the oldest in the UK – and more than 40 per cent are over 100 years old.

Thames Water supplies drinking water to 8.7 million customers in London and the Thames Valley.

Example of Twitter feed on twitter.com/thameswater 08-09 January 2011

• @morecheerful Hi, just to let you know this was repaired last night. Amy11:28 AM Jan 9th via HootSuitein reply to morecheerful
• @allondon71 Hi Alex, can you give me the postcode for this please? Amy11:24 AM Jan 9th via web in reply to allondon71
• @ifuller1 @darryl1974 Hi both, the leak on Trafalgar Road was repaired last night. Amy11:23 AM Jan 9th via web in reply to ifuller1
• @allondon71 Thanks for the #tweetaleak will get that reported. Amy9:29 PM Jan 8th via txt
• @morecheerful Hi, we’re due to repair this tonight. Amy6:37 PM Jan 8th via txt

Source: Thames Water, 06 Jan 2011 – 10 Dec 2010 – 06 Dec 2011

Extracting water out of thin air now possible

Image via Wikipedia

Thanks to a new technology developed by the Fraunhofer Alliance SysWasser, Germany it is now possible to extract from the humidity in the air water .

The principle behind it is a salt solution that runs down from a tower-shaped system and absorbs water from the air, known as hygroscopic brine. This brine is then pumped into a tank that stands a couple of metres high and contains
a vacuum.

Sludge use: ‘Poo-powered’ car seen on the streets of Bristol, UK

A “poo-powered” VW Beetle has taken to the streets of Bristol in an attempt to encourage sustainable motoring.

Photo: Geneco

The Bio-Bug runs on processed methane gas (biomethane) generated as part of the raw sewage treatment process.

Wessex Water engineers estimate the yearly waste from 70 average households would generate enough gas to run the car for 10,000 miles (16,100km).

Despite being powered by fuel created from sewage, the car does not smell unpleasant.

“It performs like a normal car – you wouldn’t know it was powered by biogas,” a company spokesman said.

‘Surplus gas’

To use biogas as vehicle fuel without affecting vehicle performance or reliability the gas needs to be treated to remove the carbon dioxide content.

GENeco, part of Wessex Water, imported specialist “cleaning” equipment to treat the raw methane generated at the sewage treatment works in Avonmouth.

Countries including India and China use compressed natural gas (CNG) to power vehicles and a number of companies in the UK are now using CNG mainly to fuel buses and commercial vehicles. In Sweden, more than 11,500 vehicles already run on biomethane produced from sewage plants.

But using biogas from sewage sludge is yet to take off in the UK despite a significant amount being produced everyday at sewage plants around the country.

The spokesman added: Our site has been producing biogas for many years which we use to generate electricity to power the site and export to the National Grid.

“With the surplus gas we had available we wanted to put it to good use in a sustainable and efficient way.

“We decided to power a vehicle on the gas offering a sustainable alternative to using fossil fuels which we so heavily rely on in the UK.”

Read more about the Bio-Bug on the Geneco web site.

See also: Bio-methane fuelled vehicles – John Baldwin CNG Services, 2008

Source: BBC, 05 Aug 2010

Waste Water Treatment Plant Mud Used As ‘green’ Fuel

Scientists have shown that using mud from waste water treatment plants as a partial alternative fuel can enable cement factories to reduce their CO2 emissions and comply with the Kyoto Protocol, as well as posing no risk to human health and being profitable. These are the results of an environmental impact assessment.

Dependency on oil and coal could be coming to an end. Researchers from the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) have analysed the environmental and human health impacts of an alternative fuel that solves various problems simultaneously. This is the solid waste from the water treatment plants of large cities.

The scientists have carried out the first study into this method at a cement plant in Vallcarca (Catalonia), which has been producing cement for more than 100 years, and they confirm in the latest issue of the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research that it is “the best option for getting rid of mud that would have had to be dumped elsewhere, while also powering the plant”.

[...] Up to 20% of the fossil fuel energy used at the Catalan plant has now been substituted for the fuel from waste water treatment plant mud.

One of the most important issues for the URV scientists is the reduction in environmental impact, and consequently the health risks for people living near the plants. The experiment with the mud has led to a 140,000 tonne reduction in CO2 emissions between 2003 and 2006, and will have limited the potential deaths from exposure to chemical pollutants. In addition, the study shows that using this green fuel would reduce the cancer rate by 4.56 per million inhabitants.

The researchers say it is essential to carry out separate studies for each plant because “we still don’t know whether this will be positive for the whole cement industry”, according to Domingo. However, if the conditions are right, using mud from waste water treatment plants in cement factories is “a very good solution”, he concludes

Source: Plataforma SINC, ScienceDaily, 23 Jun 2009

Dow’s Reuse of Municipal Wastewater Wins 2008 ICIS Innovation Award

The Dow Chemical Company’s re-use of municipal wastewater at its Benelux site in Terneuzen, The Netherlands was named the winner of the Most Innovative Corporate Social Responsibility Project in the 2008 ICIS Innovation Awards.

[...] The site uses treated household wastewater to produce high pressure steam and, as recycled water, in its cooling tower. This is [claimed to be] the first time that municipal wastewater is being re-used on such a large scale in the industry, exceeding 2.6 million gallons per day. The project is the result of [a public-private partnership] between Dow, the water treatment provider Evides and the Zeeuws-Vlaanderen Water Board.

[...] Dow already [wants to replicate the approach in] other regions such as the Middle East and China, where water is “the most precious commodity.”

Source: European Water News, 11 Nov 2008

Optisense Receives innoWATOR government grant for developing an Early Warning system for E. coli in drinking water

Enschede – January 9, 2008 – Optisense, a provider of biosensor technology and Vitens, the largest Dutch Drinking water company, have received an innoWATOR grant from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs for developing an Early Warning system for E. coli and other indicators for fecal pathogens in drinking water. The core of the system will be an E. coli sensor with a disposable sensor surface in combination with a concentrator unit. The system aims to replace conventional laboratory testing which is time consuming (48-96 hours) and costly, as well as significantly decreasing the chance of consuming polluted water. It is seen as a breakthrough for water distribution systems in fast growing economies.

More info: Optisense, 9 Jan 2008