Richard shares his research at virtual EGU General Assembly 2021

Richard, a postdoctoral researcher in our Bangor team, has been attending the European Geosciences Union’s (EGU) 2021 General Assembly this week, as well as presenting and discussing his work. Usually held in Vienna, this year’s conference is being conducted online due to the ongoing global pandemic, providing a fantastic opportunity to disseminate Dŵr Uisce research to a wide global audience. Indeed, the event is one of the largest gatherings of geosciences related researchers in Europe, with the EGU having over 20,000 members.

Whilst participating in the conference, Richard has attended many sessions from various EGU divisions such as hydrological sciences, climate (past, present and future), and energy resources and the environment. The work presented here has been highly interesting, and has furthered Richard’s knowledge, research scope, and contacts, all of which will bring great benefit to his Dŵr Uisce research. In addition, new avenues of research have been explored, and ideas generated for future work and new methods.

Richard also presented his latest research which explores the impact of climate change on water abstraction for the purposes of public water supply and hydroelectric power in Wales. As with all contributions at this year’s assembly, Richard’s took the form of a vPICO (virtual Presentation of Interactive COntent), consisting a two-minute live presentation of a single slide, followed by a breakout room, allowing in-depth discussions of the work. This was a highly valuable experience, allowing for both the engagement of a broad audience and detailed discussions and conversations on the research, methods, and implications. In addition, a 15-minute pre-recorded presentation of the research has been available throughout the conference to EGU members, and will be accessible until the 30th May, allowing for even greater interaction with and comment on the research.

This has been a highly valuable opportunity for Richard and the Dŵr Uisce project, allowing access to some of the leading researchers in the field, enabling comment and opinions on the presented work and future plans. Thanks must go to the organisers of the General Assembly, as well as the funders of the Dŵr Uisce project, the European Regional Development Fund through Interreg Ireland-Wales Cooperation Programme.

Himanshu presented his research at Indian Control Conference in Hyderabad, India

Our postdoctoral researcher, Himanshu Nagpal, presented at the Sixth Indian Control Conference, which was held at Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India. The conference was devoted to advances in broad areas of control and system theory and their application in various areas. The ICC is held every year at a different academic institution in India. The organizer of the ICC is Control Society, a nonprofit society registered in India with the aim of fostering research and development activities in the broad domain of control and allied areas.

Schematic of wastewater assisted heat pump

Himanshu presented his work on improvement of energy efficiency in residential buildings using wastewater heat recovery and model predictive control.  His work demonstrated that the temporal mismatches between recovered heat availability and space heating consumption can be efficiently mitigated using thermal inertia of the building as a passive storage and applying model predictive control strategy to operate the heating system of the building.  The particular numerical case study presented in his paper demonstrated 26% reduction in total heating demand using wastewater heat recovery. The work presented is a small step forward in the direction of energy and water efficiency in domestic buildings.

New findings presented at the British Hydropower Association annual conference

By Daniele Novara

On November 13-14th the 2019 British Hydropower Association annual conference took place at the Hilton Grosvenor Hotel in Glasgow. The speaker’s line-up included more than 30 figures representing academia, industry and water/energy authorities.

Among the presenters was Daniele Novara from Trinity College Dublin, who introduced the audience to the two hydro pilot plants recently built by the Dŵr Uisce project in Ireland and Wales. Such installations are both powered by a 4 kW Pump As Turbine (PAT) which showed many advantages over conventional turbines – essentially reduced purchase cost and simplified maintenance. Besides, such devices can be effectively placed along with pre-existent pipe networks thus dramatically lowering the resources and time needed to complete the installation.

The performances of the two operating turbines will be monitored on the long period to gather additional information on their durability and efficacy when deployed on the field.

Isabel and Jan presenting at the SDEWES conference in Dubrovnik

By Jan Spriet, Isabel Schestak

Isabel and Jan presented at the 14th conference for Sustainable Development in Energy, Water and Environment Systems, which was held 1st-6th October 2019 in Dubrovnik. It brought together around 570 scientists, researchers, and experts in the field of sustainable development from 55 countries. 511 presentations were held, 100 posters presented, 17 special sessions were organised, and 4 invited lectures and 2 panels were held with some of the most distinguished experts in the field.

Jan presented our work on the demonstration site at Penrhyn castle, on Saturday October 5th, in the session titled Water-Energy nexus. His presentation showed a heat recovery potential of up to 2.1 MWH per year at the kitchen of the tea room of Penrhyn castle, reducing the related technical greenhouse gas emissions by up to 780 kg per year. In the total hospitality and food services sector in the UK, the reduction potential was estimated at 1.24 TWh per year, and around 500 kilotons of carbon emissions per year, compared to heating water with the current energy mix in the UK.

Isabel presented the research related to the environmental sustainability of using a heat recovery system in commercial kitchens, which is based on data from the Penrhyn castle study, too. The results of the Life Cycle Assessment of a heat recovery system which comprises heat exchanger, pipework, fittings and insulation, showed: The environmental impacts from manufacture of the equipment can be reduced by up to 80-99% through the use of recycled copper or replacing copper through polymer materials such as polyethylene for the pipework or polypropylene-graphite for the heat exchanger. As the material demand for pipework can be greater than for the heat exchanger, compact design and reduction of pipework is key for sustainable heat recovery. Even when renewable heat is replaced through recovered heat, there is a significant potential for climate change mitigation for most UK commercial kitchens.

Inspiration from nexus thinking at the 1st International Conference on Water, Energy, Environment Nexus (WEEN-2019)

Aisha presented her research on water-energy demand management at the 1st International Conference on Water, Energy, Environment Nexus (WEEN-2019) where she also chaired a technical session on water and wastewater.

The conference was organised by the Global Network for Researchers (GNR) in Istanbul, Turkey from the 5th – 8th September 2019.  The objective of the conference was to provide a platform for interdisciplinary researchers, scientists, engineers, academics as well as industrial professionals from all over the world to present their research in Water, Energy, and Environment.

Aisha’s presentation was on the role of water-energy demand management in the built environment can play towards efficient and sustainable urban water systems of the future, particularly given expected challenges of population projections, declining water resources, and the UK water sector and the government’s (at both national and local levels) ambitions in achieving net zero emissions targets in the very near future.

Aisha being awarded a certificate for chairing a technical session on water and wastewater

Aisha was very pleased to see many different applications to nexus thinking, including with circular economy and process integration.

It was Aisha’s first time in Istanbul, and she made sure to have a ‘water’ tour, including visits to the famous Valens Aqueduct and Basilica Cistern.

Nilki presents her research into real-time optimization on water distribution networks

17th Computing and Control for the water industry conference took place from the 1st to 4th of September in the University of Exeter, UK. The conference was brought together the practitioners and researchers in the water industry to discuss the emerging ‘WATER 4.0’ agenda – water systems modelling, data and control. Nilki Aluthge Dona presented her work on a methodology to control a water network in real time using model predictive control at the poster session. Her poster, entitled as “Real-time optimization on water distribution networks using linear model predictive control” was a part of the two-day poster session held in the conference hall.

The conference featured variety of technical sessions in which “Hydraulic systems modelling” was an interesting topic for Nilki’s work. There were two keynote speakers who spoke about the water sector being “Digitalized” and particularly how 5G wireless networks can be used for the management of water systems. Her work was related to the water systems modelling and control in which she used linear model predictive control to real-time control a water network based in Ireland.

Dr. Katrin Dreyer-Gibney shared our learning from innovation in the Dŵr Uisce project.

Dr. Katrin Dreyer-Gibney, a Research Fellow from the Trinity Business School, attended the 26th IPDM Conference , in the University of Leicester, UK.

The 26th IPDM Conference  took place in the University of Leicester, in June 2019. Hundreds of delegates attended from all over the world.

Dr. Katrin Dreyer-Gibney, a Research Fellow from the Trinity Business School, Dublin. Katrin presented a research paper, co-authored with Dr Ana de Almeida Kumlien, Prof. Paul Coughlan and Dr Aonghus McNabola, covering the latest findings from the collaboration and dissemination part of the Dŵr Uisce project: “Learning to innovate through action learning, collaborative prototyping and demonstration”. 

The presentation generated much interest amongst conference delegates. Not only did her presentation cover a project addressing water-energy challenges, one of the top sustainability priorities globally, it was also one of the few research projects presented that had action learning research as an overall research methodology.

With this research methodology, practical knowledge is generated in collaboration with many stakeholders over an extended time-period, finding a workable solution to a real-life problem. 

Katrin’s talk was well received. Some attendees invited her to collaborate in follow-up activities and provided much constructive feedback. Overall, it was a success, as delegates understood the overall message of the presentation: The global water crises can be addressed when researchers step out of the lab and work side-by-side with industry, local communities, decision-makers and legislators, so their new technology can be adopted.

Innovation in collaboration

Jan presents at the EICTUS conference in Strasbourg

The European International Conference on Transforming Urban Systems (EICTUS) took place from June 26th to June 28th in Strasbourg. The conference brought together a multi-disciplinary field of researchers, and focused on topics ranging from Urban Water Management, over Air Pollution to new Mobility systems. Jan presented his work on a methodology to include Spatial and Temporal aspects into feasibility studies for heat recovery from the effluent of wastewater treatment plants. His presentation, entitled ‘Spatial and temporal variations in the performance of indirect drain water heat recovery systems in wastewater treatment plants’ was part of the Urban Water session of the conference.

The study was performed in collaboration with the Institute of sanitary Engineering and Water Pollution Control of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), where Jan stayed for 3 months as a visiting researcher. A more detailed description of the methodology, and an application on a case study was submitted for publication under the title: ‘Spatial and temporal considerations in the performance of wastewater heat recovery systems’.

Everything you can make from reused water – for example beer!

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Isabel Schestak (Bangor University) presented her work on the sustainability of heat recovery from commercial kitchen wastewater at the IWA Water Reuse conference.

Our PhD student Isabel Schestak (Bangor University) presented her work on the sustainability of heat recovery from commercial kitchen wastewater at the IWA Water Reuse conference with a poster and pitch. It informed about the results from the study with our demo site at Penrhyn Castle and the environmental benefits for the application of heat recovery across the whole UK. At the end of the conference, Isabel took part in the technical tours, where participants were shown real-world examples of heat recovery in an industrial laundry and a production site for instant coffee.

Water reuse experts from all over the world had come to Berlin to present their research on water reuse and reclamation. Water reuse was discussed for different sectors and countries: potable water reuse, industrial and agricultural reuse. Case study examples were given on how to integrate water reuse in existing systems, how to monitor water quality and how to manage associated risks. State of the art technology was presented for the removal of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals. Also, how can public perception be influenced and how can we make direct water reuse, especially as drinking water, acceptable by consumers? The Berliner Wasserbetriebe  – the water supplier for Berlin – undertook one step to test public acceptance. They have brewed a batch of 1000 liter beer from recycled water. The conference attendees had the first try! It is not the first beer of its kind, but the first in Germany.

The conference attendees were having a beer brewed from recycled water!

Richard presents his Dŵr Uisce PhD research at two international conferences

Richard with his poster at the International Union of Geodesy & Geophysics General Assembly 2019, Montreal.

Our Bangor PhD researcher, Richard Dallison has attended two international conferences in the last month in order to disseminate his Dŵr Uisce work and gain new insight in to the most recent developments in the field.

Firstly Richard attended one of the premier gatherings of Earth and space researchers, the 27th General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in Montréal, Canada between the 9th and 13th of July. This year’s Assembly, with over 4,000 participants from 103 countries, marked 100 years of the IUGG and had a theme of ‘Beyond 100: The next century in Earth and Space Science’. This theme fitted well with Richard’s research, with him having been researching how climate change will impact on water resources in Wales in the coming decades, and the knock-on implications for future water supply security. Richard presented his results for changes in water quality & quantity in the Dyfi catchment, mid-Wales, under a high future emissions scenario. The poster session in which Richard presented allowed him to not only disseminate his work to a broad audience, but also gain valuable feedback, from both other hydrologists, as well as researchers from other fields, with different perspectives.

Shortly after returning from Montréal, Richard attended the International SWAT Conference at the University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria. The three day conference, held between the 17th and 19th of July, covered a variety of topics relating to the development and use of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). SWAT is a hydrological model which is being implemented by Richard to assess climate change impacts on future water supply. The model is used internationally for a variety of purposes, with climate change impact assessment being a key use. This conference was therefore a valuable learning opportunity for Richard, allowing him to talk to and question some of the leading global users of SWAT, as well as the model developers. Once again, the opportunity to present at the conference, this time in the form of a 20 minute oral presentation, was invaluable in obtaining feedback, questions & comments, as well as to make connections in the SWAT modelling community.

Thanks must go to the organisers of both of these extremely valuable conferences for the important insight that has been gained. Furthermore thanks goes to our Dŵr Uisce funders, the European Regional Development Fund, Interreg Ireland-Wales Programme 2014-2020 for enabling the opportunity to attend.