The beginning of a new venture: DWR Driving Water Resilience launches today!

We are delighted to inform you that as a legacy of the great work and achievements of the team in Dwr Uisce, we now offer a number of consultancy services and education activities through our spin-out venture DWR- Driving Water Resilience. You can find more details here.

Please get in touch if you are interested in ways to improve your water-energy efficiency!

On 30 June 2023 the Dwr Uisce project officially ends. We want to thank all our partners, collaborators and followers for their continued interest and input into the project. If you would like to keep in touch, please opt in our DWR newsletter at the end of a short survey here.

Advancing Sustainable Solutions: Dŵr Uisce's Innovative Hydropower Demonstration Sites

Daniele Novara

The Dŵr Uisce research project, funded by the ERDF Interreg Ireland-Wales Programme, is committed to enhancing the long-term sustainability of water supply, treatment, and end-use in Ireland and Wales. By developing innovative technology platforms and promoting low-carbon and smart energy solutions, Dŵr Uisce aims to improve the efficiency and resilience of the water sector. In 2019, two demonstration sites were established as part of this project. Let's explore the content of two posters that describe these installations. The posters were presented at the final Dwr Uisce event in March 2023, in the foyer of Trinity Business School. If you were not able to attend, this is your opportunity to discover more.

Poster 1: Blackstairs Group Water Scheme - Pump as Turbine installation for energy recovery from water infrastructure

Poster 1: Blackstairs Gourp Water Scheme

Amid the rising challenges faced by water utilities worldwide, reducing operating costs, managing water leakage, and providing reliable services while keeping user bills affordable has become a top priority. To address these concerns, Dŵr Uisce has explored the recovery of kinetic energy from water infrastructures where energy dissipation currently occurs.

Pumps used as turbines (PATs) have emerged as a cost-effective and efficient solution for hydro power generation. This innovative approach offers numerous advantages, including compact dimensions, off-the-shelf availability, easy installation and maintenance, and reduced investment costs compared to traditional hydro turbines. Click on the image to open the poster.

Through careful investigation, the Dŵr Uisce team identified significant energy recovery potential at the Blackstairs Treatment Works, operated by EPS Group. By installing a centrifugal Pump As Turbine (PAT) in the water supply line leading to the raw water storage tank, they harnessed 3.3 kW of power. The PAT design algorithm, developed by Trinity College Dublin, assisted in selecting the ideal characteristics for the main PAT and generator set. If operated continuously throughout the year, this energy recovery device has the potential to reduce the treatment works' energy consumption by an impressive 20-25%.

 Poster 2: Pump as Turbine Micro-Hydropower installation - Ty Mawr Wybrnant

While Wales boasts significant potential for small-scale hydropower development, the upfront investment and declining subsidies have hindered its economic viability. However, Dŵr Uisce took on this challenge with an innovative approach, aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of micro-hydropower schemes even at the "pico" scale, generating less than 5 kW. Click here to open the poster.

At Ty Mawr Wybrnant, a historical farmhouse managed by the National Trust and a popular tourist site in Northern Wales, a small hydropower scheme was installed to reduce energy consumption related to lighting and heating. The scheme harnesses the power of the nearby Afon Wybrnant stream, generating approximately 4 kW of clean renewable electricity. With a measured net hydraulic head of 35 m and a design flow rate of 25 l/s, this installation is expected to produce around 19,000 kWh of electricity annually, equivalent to over 8 tons of CO2 emissions avoided per year.

The primary goal of this installation is not only to showcase the environmental benefits, such as minimal impact on the ecosystem and significant CO2 savings but also to prove the economic attractiveness of small-scale hydro schemes.

 Conclusions

The Dŵr Uisce project has made substantial progress in promoting sustainable solutions within the water and energy sectors. The two pilot plants highlighted in the posters provide real-world evidence of the project's commitment to reducing energy consumption, lowering carbon emissions, and optimizing resource efficiency. These innovative installations demonstrate the potential for wider adoption of energy recovery technologies and micro-hydropower schemes, leading us towards a more sustainable future for water and energy management.

Seeking a Pilot site for a New Wastewater Heat Recovery Trial at a Commercial Kitchen

Members of the Dwr Uisce team are seeking to identify a new pilot site to install their new Wastewater heat recovery technology in the grease trap of an operating commercial kitchen.

This is being conducted as part of a new Enterprise Ireland funded project called REHEATS. This new project is a follow on from the work carried out on wastewater heat recovery at commercial kitchens in the Dwr Uisce project including our demonstration pilot at Penrhyn Castle.

Image from Unsplash

REHEATS will pilot a combined grease trap – heat recovery system aiming to recycle 40-60% of kitchen wastewater heat while also improving fat oil and grease retention by 20%.

This pilot plant opportunity offers one lucky commercial kitchen the potential to substantially reduce water heating bills and shrink the carbon footprint of their business.

If you are a hotel, restaurant, pub, café or other commercial food preparation outlet with an existing grease trap we are interested in speaking to you.

Please contact amcnabol@tcd.ie for further details.

Dŵr Uisce Smart Specialisation Cluster

Roberta Bellini

Over the last 6.5 years, our team has worked with many organisations from a broad range of sectors. At the core of WP8 was the set up of a so-called Smart Specialisation Cluster to facilitate contribution to the project activities and uptake of the project findings by the water industry, to raise public awareness of the work being carried out in relation to the water-energy challenge.You can explore the activities, outreach and impacts achieved in this poster.

In our page ‘Our cluster’, a short new session on how the cluster is visualised in DUVis is presented (Figure 1). Here the poster prepared for our final event can be accesses to read more about the features and capabilities of the tool, as well as its benefits. The tool is open access and can be explored by scanning the QR code below or by clicking here.

Figure 1: overview of DUVis

Cluster members have, in the past, had access to our Members Only Area, where documentations and videos about past events were collated and available for viewing and downloading. With the end of the project approaching, all content will be released weekly and become of public domain. These includes recording of our Sustainability Webinar Series, for example. The webinar ‘Managing a transdisciplinary research project’ has already been released and is an opportunity to delve deeper into the research management approach and how new knowledge was created by hearing the reflections of Dŵr Uisce project researchers experience of managing this transdisciplinary research project and developing a useful and usable tool for visualising the project metadata. Watch it here.

We take this opportunity to thank all cluster members and partners who have worked with us and we hope that there will be new future opportunities for collaboration and co-creation. In the meanwhile, keep following us on our social media channels and why not to also check out one of our legacy projects, REHEATZ.

Hybrid grease trap device for drain water heat recovery and its impact on increasing grease removal efficiency

Ajeet Singh

A new hybrid grease trap (GT) device has been proposed for considerable heat recovery from commercial kitchen hot wastewater and its ability to increase the efficiency of removing fat, oil, and grease (FOG). In the short piece below, a summary of the article published in the Journal of Cleaner Production is presented. You can access the full paper here.    

A grease trap (GT) is a device commonly installed at commercial food facilities for grease removal and is a mandatory requirement for commercial kitchen wastewater discharge in Ireland and in many other countries. Grease traps operate by collecting all discharges from the kitchen for a specified amount of time to enable the separation of fats, oil and grease (FOG) from the flow. In terms of wastewater heat recovery the grease trap could act as an already existing store of hot-wastewater in which heat exchange in addition to FOG removal could take place, thus overcoming the cost disadvantage of purpose built storage-based WWHR systems.

In our study, a GT was integrated with a heat recovery unit, also called a hybrid GT system. Two heat exchanger (HX) designs for heat recovery were tested individually and then compared in terms of their thermal recovery capabilities: a planar type (Fig. 1) and a rectangular coil type (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Computational model of the hybrid grease trap system integrated with planar type thermal recovery unit.

Fig. 2. Computational model of the hybrid grease trap system integrated with rectangular coil thermal recovery unit for enhanced thermal recapture from high temperature kitchen wastewater.

The GT with the planar HX was first tested in a set of experiments in the lab (read more here) and then its design was optimized with computer simulations using a commercial software. As a consequence, the planar thermal recovery unit design was upgraded to the rectangular coil type. In fact, variable temperature was observed along the GT depth for which the rectangular HX showed greater potential for heat recovery from the high temperature kitchen wastewater discharge. Therefore, a new optimum design of the rectangular HX was developed and assessed using numerical simulations. The resulting optimum design was found to save 2.6 kW of thermal energy in the kitchen GT and was 48% more efficient compared to the basic planar HX (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Cost saving associated with water heating for hybrid GT system retrofitted with planar and rectangular HX units compared with the traditional GT system without a thermal recovery unit.

Based on the results, overall about 40% of the GT wastewater heat was successfully captured using the upgraded thermal recovery unit which would reduce the cost associated with the water heating and steam generation by up to 37%. The ambient temperature greatly impacts the system ability to recapture heat: a higher ambient temperature was found to be favourable due to reduced ambient heat loss from the system.

The proposed designs of thermal recovery units are simple and easy to manufacture, making the concept economically feasible for commercial application. Adaptation of such renewable heat-based systems in commercial kitchens would decrease the use of fossil-based fuels and contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of water heating (see Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Annual greenhouse gas saving by reducing electricity consumption for water heating by adopting the hybrid GT system. The hybrid GT systems for two different thermal recovery unit designs compared are the planar HX and rectangular HX.

Heat recovery from commercial kitchen GTs has been shown in this study to be technically viable with strong potential for economic viability and positive environmental impact through reducing the carbon footprint of water heating.

Our final event in Trinity Business School, Dublin

Roberta Bellini

Our final event, ‘Delivering Solutions for the Sustainability of the Water-Energy Nexus’, took place on 7 March 2023 in Trinity Business School in Dublin. The event run in hybrid mode, with more than 60 attendees in total. Delegates attending in person were welcomed in the foyer of TBS with refreshments and a display of posters describing all the work carried out under the different project areas.

Dublin Welsh Male Choir opening our event.

It was opened by a choral performance of the Dublin Welsh Male Choir, which set a joyful tone. It was followed by words by Professor Brian Broderick, Associate Dean of Research – STEM and by a video contribution of Lee Water MS, Deputy Minister for Climate Change.

 It was then the turn of Prof Aonghus Mc Nabola to take participants through some of the achievements and outcomes of the technological solutions. Dr Prysor Williams then presented all that was achieved by the Bangor team in terms of auditing and benchmarking, carbon footprint of distilleries and green technologies for heat recovery and, finally what impacts future climate change could have on water resources availability and hydropower generation in Ireland and Wales. It was followed by a reflection by Prof Paul Coughlan on how as a research team we have managed such a complex and transdisciplinary project and achieved so much! We engaged with over 250 organisations and more than 600 young people and citizens. The winners of our Climate Action Hackathon Programme were invited to join us and present their ideas: Millie and Robert from Newpark Comprehensive Secondary School, with their teacher Ms Grant, came to represent their team and presented their idea ‘Aquatrack’ with a poster and a short but powerful pitch! You can see some of the event salient moments in the gallery below.

The Dublin Welsh Male Choir closed the event with few more songs, from both Irish and Welsh tradition and the two National Anthems.

On behalf of the whole Dwr Uisce Team, we want to thank all who helped us to organise the event, all the delegates and online participants for their interesting questions and messages of appreciation and also the funding by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Ireland Wales Co-operation programme 2014-2020.

Our Spring Newsletter is out!

Image from Unsplash

Welcome to our Spring 2023 Newsletter, bringing you the latest (and final) updates on the Dŵr Uisce project. You can read it here.
 
This is the final issue of our Newsletter and it has a celebratory theme to highlight what has been achieved and to mark the end of more than six years of impactful research and fruitful collaborations.
In this issue, you can read the reflections from various team members about their experience in the project, as well as testimonials from businesses and organisations we have collaborated with.
 
In case you missed the notice, our closing event ‘Delivering Solutions for the Sustainability of the Water-Energy Nexus’ takes place in person tomorrow, March 07, 2023, in Trinity Business School and it will be livestreamed via Zoom. You can still register to join us online!
 
Finally, thanks to all our cluster members and followers for your interest and collaboration over the past six and half years. Together, we have made a difference but there is more to do. We look forward to working  with you again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.

Croeso i Newyddlen Gwanwyn 2023 â'r wybodaeth ddiweddaraf (a’r olaf) am broject Dŵr Uisce.
 
Dyma rifyn olaf y Newyddlen ac mae ynddo elfen o ddathlu i dynnu sylw at yr hyn a gyflawnwyd ac i nodi diwedd dros chwe blynedd o ymchwil effeithiol a chydweithio ffrwythlon.
Yn y rhifyn hwn, mae gwahanol aelodau o’r tîm yn adfyfyrio am eu profiad o’r project, ac yn ogystal mae tystebau gan fusnesau a sefydliadau y buom yn cydweithio â nhw.

Rhag ofn ichi golli'r hysbysiad, bydd y digwyddiad cloi 'Darparu Atebion ar gyfer Cynaliadwyedd y Cysylltiad Dŵr-Ynni' yn digwydd yn y cnawd yfory, Mawrth 07, 2023, yn Ysgol Fusnes y Drindod. Caiff ei ffrydio'n fyw ar Zoom. Cofrestrwch i ymuno â ni ar-lein!

Yn olaf, diolch i holl aelodau’r clwstwr a’n dilynwyr am eich diddordeb a’ch cydweithrediad dros y chwe blynedd a hanner diwethaf. Gyda'n gilydd, mi wnaethom wahaniaeth ond mae mwy i'w wneud. Edrychwn ymlaen at weithio gyda chi eto

What some of our collaborators and partners say of us!

Over the 6.5 years of the Dwr Uisce project, the team has engaged and worked with more than 250 organisations. Below you can read what some of the stakeholders we have collaborated with say about their experience with Dwr Uisce.

‘The Rediscovery Centre got involved with the Dwr Uisce project via a collaborative relationship we had with Trinity College.  As we are a small environmental NGO, it was great to link up with the Dwr Uisce project so we could benefit from the expertise this project team brought to our building facilities.  It was also interesting to learn of potential energy we had to avail of.  This type of work is relevant to many sectors of society and hopefully elements can be rolled out in the future.  For us, as the National Centre for the Circular Economy we want to ensure our building and our operations exemplify circular economy and sustainability, and it is important for us to try to stay ahead of the curve.  We look forward to future projects of this nature.’

Roger Warburton, Programme Director, The Rediscovery Centre

Kirsty Black with Isabel Schestak

My experience with Bangor University and the Dwr Uisce project, bringing together academic expertise and techniques with industry, has been a great experience.  Looking at real life data from our distillery, we developed practical and feasible changes to help reduce our energy and water use.

Kirsty Black,  Arbikie Distillery, Scotland

Ballinabranna Water Scheme have worked with Dwr Uisce over a number of years following introduction via the NFGWS. We have benefitted directly through assistance in sharing knowledge of DWR Uisce projects with our local school children and also seen the work done with other schemes e.g. Blackstairs. Being aware of the potential to save / harvest energy or to use waste water for other means is a great eye opener for options available for schemes/ businesses. Creating awareness is a such a step in the right direction especially in the current environment with increasing energy costs. It has been a pleasure to work with the Dwr Uisce team.

Gail Fitzgerald, Ballinabranna GWS, Carlow, Ireland.

Barry Gibney with Prof Coughlan and Katrin Dreyer-Gibney

“We at Gibney’s Pub in Malahide are delighted to have collaborated with the research team from Trinity and Bangor University. As a business, we are constantly searching for ways to reduce our energy and water consumption, and this partnership has sparked several ideas for further consideration. The team's dedication and expertise has been invaluable in our efforts to become a more sustainable and environmentally conscious establishment. We are excited to continue working together and seeing the positive impact of our efforts in the future."

Barry Gibney, Owner of Gibney’s Pub

“I first got involved with the Dwr Uisce project back in 2020 following on from my predecessor Keith Jones who had worked closely with Dwr Uisce from the outset to explore how heat recovery technology might be applied at Penrhyn Castle. Participating in a project like this has been of huge value to us in the National Trust at both a property and wider organisational level. Reducing waste and conserving energy supports our core purpose as a conservation charity. The heat recovery system demonstrates steps we can take even within a historical context and the constraints that can sometimes present. We as an organisation have climate action at the heart of our strategy and believe enabling others has a key role to play in this. This project is a great example of how through working in partnership we can support, enthuse and enable others and we are grateful to have been able to play our part.”

Enfys Evans, Climate and Environment Adviser – Wales, National Trust 

My journey working on the Dŵr Uisce project for a sustainable future

Ajeet Singh

The Dŵr Uisce team is made up of experts from five different disciplines and their research efforts, independently and collaboratively, focused on improving the energy efficiency of the water sector to achieve a more sustainable future. I had the opportunity to work on the heat recovery aspect of the project (under Work Package 2- Drain Water Heat Recovery) which included a mix of computer modelling using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as well as lab experiments. I love to work with numerical techniques / CFD, having carried out  my entire doctorate research in this field.

In details, the two main projects I got involved with were: the laboratory experiments to assess wastewater heat recovery from grease traps; and the monitoring of the pilot heat recovery installation at Penrhyn Castle in Bangor, Wales.

Grease Traps (GT) are devices installed at the wastewater outlet of commercial kitchens to literally trap oils, fat and grease and prevent them to flow down the drain, build up and cause blockages. The focus of my research was on numerical modelling and experiments to predict the heat recovery capability of the heat exchanger integrated to the GT device called hybrid GT device. I found it very interesting to check heat recovery by progressive addition of fat, oil, and grease (FOG) to the hot wastewater. I remember, measurements of FOG level from the GT wastewater was the biggest challenge: starting from the wastewater testing with various chemicals to churning the mix solution with a stirrer for couple of days in the laboratory. Eventually, using a dip stick proven to be the most useful technique for FOG measurement (Figure 1). Optimum design of the heat exchanging unit for the hybrid GT was successfully developed which showed excellent heat recovery potential.

Figure 1: Dip Stick (left); Grease trap Laboratory experiments (right)

Penrhyn Castle: I got the opportunity to monitor heat recycling of a pilot heat recovery setup installed at Penrhyn Castle in 2019 in collaboration with the National Trust (Figure 2). The Castle is a famous tourist destination in Bangor. The café serves food and beverages to the many tourists who visit the castle. The heat recovered from the café hot wastewater is used for preheating the incoming freshwater which reduce the primary water heating demand, and hence the amount of conventional fuel and associated costs. The heat recovery also delivers a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The existing temporal mismatch between availability of hot wastewater and heat recovery would require the integration of thermal storage solutions, an interesting opportunity future further research in this field.  

Figure 2: Pilot heat recovery installation at Penrhyn Castle

Overall, it has been a great experience working with such a diverse team who actively collaborate to achieve the project aims and objectives and support each other to overcome any challenges. It was a memorable journey as part of the Dŵr Uisce team over the last two and a half years. Last, I would like to thank the team leaders for this great opportunity   

A few memories, which I captured in the picutres below!

Figure 3 (left to right): Team meeting in TCD in March 2022; site visits of demo sites in Wales (2022); ferry trip to Bangor.