How can we build a Water Treatment Works that is resilient to future changes in raw water quality?
This four day sprint taking place at Newcastle Racecourse will be of interest to those with expertise in water resources, climate change resilience, modelling, water treatment, emerging threats, digital, automation and catchment management.
"Our water treatment works estate has changed over time and moved from mostly biological to mostly chemical processes. The increase in process intensity has reduced land take and construction cost and allowed water to be treated to meet ever tighter standards.
The asset base is aging, and replacements are due soon, but new water works are very expensive and are only constructed after careful evaluation. We have an amazing opportunity to identify low carbon, low chemical, low power and resilient technologies that will be essential to the water treatment works of the future. Tackling all of those issues together what does the WTW of the future look like? Can we design an all new WTW?
Over the Sprint we will explore what issues the WTWs of the future will might have to deal with, e.g. water scarcity, water quality, etc. and then design an all new WTW to cope with these changes.
This is against a backdrop of net zero, reducing carbon both emitted from operational activities and embedded from new assets. There is also a desire to use less chemical or to utilise chemical free technology. Our water treatment works estate has changed over time and moved from mostly biological to mostly chemical processes.
The increase in process intensity has reduced land take and construction cost and allowed water to be treated to meet ever tighter standards. Process intensity has then further increased as analytical improvements identified further risks requiring treatment and mitigation, these remove largely anthropological micropollutants and algae caused by eutrophication.
We have a complicated set of assets which can be difficult to operate having original parts and necessary but reactive additions to mitigate those newer hazards and issues. These assets are about to be challenged further with climate change bringing increases to raw water colour, algae, pollutants, and deluges from more convective storms.
All of these pressures drive for more advanced solutions. This is against a backdrop of net zero and climate crisis and adaptation.
The asset base is aging, and replacements are due soon, but new water works are very expensive and are only constructed after careful evaluation. We have an amazing opportunity to identify low carbon, low chemical, low power and resilient technologies that will be essential to the water treatment works of the future. Tackling all of those issues together what does the WTW of the future look like? Can we design an all new WTW?
