It’s great that we’ve been able to support three recent winning bids in Ofwat’s Water Breakthrough Challenge.
The competition is funded through Ofwat’s Innovation Fund, which was launched in 2021 to facilitate a way for water companies to share knowledge on innovation across the industry and often on a national scale. This allows us to be more ambitious in the scale of our solutions, and to better meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers, society and the environment. This also means we can share findings and run projects using expertise and experience we might not otherwise have access to.
The three winning bids looked at phosphorus removal, catchment thinking and artificial intelligence for waste catchments.
Alternative approaches to phosphorus removal on rural wastewater treatment works
This project looks to investigate different approaches to phosphorus removal on small, rural wastewater treatment works. Phosphorus (P) is a challenge for water companies as it’s a natural part of the environment and wastewater (from agriculture, gardens and toilets) but if released in non-natural quantities it can cause excessive plant growth in watercourses. Traditionally, we treat P with chemicals, which have large carbon footprints but are highly effective. By looking into new and innovative technologies, we will be providing better protection for the environment and reducing our carbon impacts in rural environments.
Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative (CaSTCo)
The CaSTCo project is an ambitious bid to revolutionise how data for the water environment is collected and stored. The project will have eight demonstration projects across the country, supporting the participation and engagement of local communities in citizen science – gathering scientific evidence from the public. The project will also develop a national framework of standardised tools and training. This is to ensure a robust evidence base to continue to protect the environment we work in and prepare for future challenges, for example from climate change and population growth.
Artificial Intelligence of Things Enabling Autonomous Waste Catchments
This project will explore artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) to understand how the technology can be applied to wastewater networks in the most effective way. The pilot will help us understand we can build better, smarter, greener wastewater catchments and minimise the risk of flooding and sewage pollution.
We’re looking forward to working on these projects and sharing our outputs with you as work gets underway. You can learn more about the fund, the competitions and all the winning projects here.
February 2022 will see another round of funding bids submitted, with further rounds opening later in the year. If you’d like to learn more about the Ofwat competition work we’re involved in, collaborate on a project with us or share an idea for a new product or process, please drop us an email: [email protected]