Richard and Sopan contribute to American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting

Richard Dallison

Last week Richard and Sopan from the Climate Change work package of our Bangor University team attended the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fall Meeting, AGU21. The meeting, one of the largest gatherings of researchers and scientists in the field of earth and space sciences, was held as a hybrid online/in-person event this year due to the ongoing global pandemic. This year’s meeting attracted over 10,000 attendees in person in New Orleans, with more than 12,000 joining the week-long conference online.

Whilst participating in the conference, Richard and Sopan attended sessions from various AGU sections, such as Hydrology and Global Environmental Change. The work presented in sessions under these themes has been highly interesting and has furthered knowledge, research scope, and contacts, all of which will bring great benefit to Dŵr Uisce project research. Additionally, new avenues of research have been explored, and ideas generated for future work and new methods.

In addition to attendance, Richard also acted as lead-convenor for a session entitled ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Hydropower Generation under Climate Change’, which attracted submissions from around the globe. Alongside session co-convenors, Sopan, Dr. Shih-Chieh Kao (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) and Professor Michael Craig (University of Michigan), Richard led the session which saw authors presenting 3-minute lightning talks with an interactive poster, followed by an interesting and varied discussion with the session attendees, chaired by Sopan. The session covered various topics relating to hydropower production under climate change, including hydropower potential assessment, reservoir and water storage implications, and the impacts of snow cover changes. This mix of topics also covered case studies from across the globe, including Pakistan, China, Chile, the US, and the UK, making for a very interesting and diverse session.

Furthermore, Richard also presented a lightning talk at AGU21, on his and Sopan’s latest research, titled ‘Generation Characteristics of Run-Of-River Hydropower Schemes in the UK and Ireland Under Future Climate Change’. This presentation featured the very latest results from Dŵr Uisce Project Work Package 7, with future trends for streamflow in 585 catchments across the UK and Ireland being showcased. In addition, the implications of these streamflow changes for future hydropower production at 521 run-of-river schemes in 178 of these catchments was also presented. Seasonal and annual trends in the number of days that abstraction for hydropower is possible, as well as total abstraction, a proxy for generation potential, were among the factors presented. The interactive poster was also available throughout the week and will be for the coming few weeks, allowing for broader dissemination of the work. This was a valuable experience, allowing for both the engagement of a broad audience and detailed discussions and conversations on the research, methods, and implications.

This has been a highly valuable opportunity to share Richard and Sopan’s Dŵr Uisce research, as well as 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 AGU21, the convenorship team of the aforementioned session, as well as all of the presenters and attendees who contributed to make such a vibrant and interesting session.

Our participation to external outreach events

Aisha at COP Cymru – Shaping Wales' Response to the Climate Emergency

On 4 November 2021, Aisha spoke about her work on the Dŵr Uisce project at the first of four COP26 live regional roadshows across Wales that mirrored the Glasgow Green Zone showcasing activity in Wales under the four key themes of energy transition in North Wales, nature-based solutions in Mid Wales, adaptation and resilience in Southwest Wales, and clean transport in Southeast Wales. The roadshows highlighted examples of best practice and allowed participants to engage in conversations around the key COP26 Presidency Programme themes.

The energy roadshow was held the M-Sparc – the Menai Science Park on Anglesey and focused on accelerating the global transition to clean energy. Aisha spoke in the Small Nation Big Ideas: Welsh science driving the energy transition session convened by the Low Carbon Energy and Environment Research Network Wales, which is working to support and strengthen Wales’ world-leading research, including in low carbon energy and chaired by Lisa Gwilym.

The session showcased research and new technologies being developed in Wales – from using nuclear reactors for more than just power, reducing energy waste throughout the water system, innovations in tidal energy, to recovering rarer material for use in batteries. The key aim of the session was to showcase how researchers work across different disciplines.

Panelists at the event; behind the scenes and Aisha’s presentation.

Aisha spoke about the water-energy nexus challenge and how to take climate action through water use efficiency. On the panel with Aisha were, Dr Michael Rushton from the Nuclear Futures Institute and Bangor University, Professor Ian Masters from Swansea University, Gemma Veneruso from School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University and Dr Jenny Baker from Swansea University.

Roberta’s participation to the first EC Education for Climate Day on Nov 25th

Presentation during the plenary open session of the 1st Education for Climate Day

On November 25 2021, the first Education for Climate Day took place online and included a number of plenary and concurrent sessions to discuss different topics around Climate Education at European Level. In the run up to the even a number of co-creation workshops were held, bringing together a participatory community of students, teachers and education stakeholders across Europe. They are all united by the shared common goal of promoting inclusive and transformational climate education for all, from early childhood to lifelong learning.

On the day, the collaborative Education for Climate (E4C) Platform was launched. The platform is a space for co-creation, knowledge sharing and collaboration among education stakeholders and all other interested parties, including of course students. Its objective is to inspire and support concrete climate action across all strands of society.

Roberta, together with three teachers from schools in Greece, Poland and Croatia, was invited to pitch a challenge on the theme of water to shape the first community challenge during the ‘Unlock and Develop’ Hackathon session. The challenge Roberta presented was focused on the water-energy nexus and on how to raise awareness about the climate action potential of water efficiency. The other pitches, also on the water theme, presented challenges around how to foster life-long behavioural change and how to involve students’ parents and guardians, too. Soon the participatory community challenge, as defined during the hackathon, will open on the platform, so that all interested members can join in the challenge and come up with practical solutions.

Congratulations to Isabel Schestak for passing her Viva

The Viva committee: James Walmsley (left), Fionnuala Murphy (top right) and Katherine Steele (bottom right). Isabel in the small window on the right corner.

Isabel, from our Bangor University team, successfully defended her PhD thesis at her Viva on the 16th November 2021, passing with minor corrections.

Her thesis is entitled “Environmental impacts in the water-energy nexus: quantification and mitigation in the food and drink sector”.

Using Life Cycle Assessment methodology, the environmental benefits (and few trade-offs) of water and energy efficiency measures are identified, such as of heat recovery from commercial kitchen drains or from process and waste streams in distilleries. Three papers have been published or accepted and two more are in planning. The calculator (downloadable here) to support kitchens in realising drain water heat recovery is also part of her dissertation.

Raising the glasses post-viva, from left to right: Prysor, Richard, Isabel, Djordje, Aisha, Nathan and Annum.

Isabel is grateful for the possibility to conduct her research in the Dŵr Uisce project: “I had the pleasure to do my PhD surrounded by incredibly supportive and encouraging colleagues in Bangor and Dublin, including an outstanding supervision by Prysor and Dave. Now, I’m looking forward to continuing to work with this interdisciplinary team during my postdoc, building on research from my PhD and exploring new areas to apply environmental impact assessment in the water value chain.”

 

Hydrogen and the Water Sector: Low Carbon at What Cost?

Nathan Walker

The UK Government has committed to Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 and has targets to cut emissions by 78% by 2035 in comparison to levels in 1990. Over the last year, the 10 Point Plan and Energy White Paper have outlined the path to Net Zero, and Hydrogen is a key feature of both. Hydrogen offers ways to decarbonise by replacing fossil fuels in various sectors, replace natural gas in some industrial processes, and can be used in heating for some commercial and residential housing, but requires large amounts of water to produce.

The production and use of Hydrogen to lower carbon emissions has seeped into the water sector and with good reason. Global water utilities are currently responsible for almost 2% of greenhouse gas emissions and by 2040 it is expected to double (Water UK, 2021), largely due to the escalating demand for wastewater treatment and higher levels of treatment (Walker et al., 2021). Companies such as Scottish Water and Severn Trent are beginning to produce Hydrogen by using electrolysers in their wastewater and are exploring processing ammonia into Nitrogen and Hydrogen. Whereas the Water Corporation of Western Australia have scaled operations up to produce 100 tonnes of fuel-grade Hydrogen by converting their biogas (Brears, 2021).

Despite the positives of Hydrogen lowering carbon emissions, a wider future hydrogen economy could also have an impact on the water industry. Water UK’s Net Zero 2030 Roadmap stated that ‘if hydrogen emerges as an alternative fuel then water demand would increase 15-20%’. This could cause significant issues for the sector. In some areas of the UK, water is already becoming scarce and will become scarcer in coming years in response to a changing climate (Dallison et al., 2021); therefore, how will the sector keep up with Hydrogen demand on top of normal demand?

This poses huge challenges, which only an inter-disciplinary and cross-sector approach can overcome, which requires input from government departments and regulators too. Only by communicating and planning cross-sector could ensures be made on the availability of water supply to be in the right place at the right time and right volumes. It is clear that the future of hydrogen is exciting and has a significant role to play in the UK’s Net Zero strategy, and the water industry must be a part of the strategy to ensure a successful rollout.

The Dŵr Uisce project researches many aspects covering water supply, treatment, and use, and the interplay with energy consumption and production, so be sure to keep an eye on developments here on the website or by signing up to the newsletter at the bottom of the homepage.

 

References

Brears, R. (2021) Water Utilities and the Hydrogen-Water-Climate Nexus. Available online: https://medium.com/mark-and-focus/water-utilities-and-the-hydrogen-water-climate-nexus-fc5671121e8d

Dallison, R. J. H. Patil, S. D. and Williams, A. P. (2021) ‘Impacts of climate change on future water availability for hydropower and public water supply in Wales, UK’, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies., 36, pp. 100866. doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100866

Water UK (2021) World Water Day 2021: Global water community challenged to join the Race to Zero. Available online: https://www.water.org.uk/news-item/world-water-day-2021-global-water-community-challenged-to-join-the-race-to-zero/

Water UK (2021) 2030 Imagined. Available online: https://www.water.org.uk/routemap2030/

 

Walker, N. L., Williams, A. P. and Styles, D. (2021) ‘Pitfalls in international benchmarking of energy intensity across wastewater treatment utilities’, J. Environ. Manag., 300, pp. 113613. doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113613

 

An update on our citizen science project

Aisha Bello - Dambatta

We launched a cross-sectional survey on public perception of household water and water-related energy use was launched in September as part of a Dŵr Uisce project citizen science project on household water use efficiency in Ireland. The survey was open for 7 weeks in September and October and was open to all households in the Republic of Ireland. We also partnered with Wexford County Council to promote the survey in County Wexford.

The main aim of the citizen science project is to engage with and collaborate with the public to improve our understanding of water-related energy use in Irish homes to help assess the most effective means of improving the resource efficiency and sustainability, reduce emissions and costs, and improve the carbon footprint of households.

A prize draw in line the Dŵr Uisce principle of sustainability and circularity was offered to participants and all completed responses were eligible to enter. We received a total of 265 responses, of which 242 were completed and 23 were non-completed responses. A total of 195 completed responses opted in and were eligible for the prize draw – 152 for the main survey and 42 for the County Wexford respondents.

 
 

Refill Ireland water bottles for the lucky winners

Fifteen responses were randomly selected for the main prize and have been notified of outcome by email with details on how to claim. The prizes are 15 stainless steel reusable bottles from Refill Ireland.

A further 5 prizes sponsored by Wexford County Council have been drawn for residents of county Wexford and the winners are also being notified. The prize draw for Wexford County participants was sponsored by Wexford County Council and administered by the Dŵr Uisce project.

We will share more information on the findings on our website, Twitter @Dwr_uisce, and LinkedIn soon and will directly contact all respondents that opted in for updates on the project.

The second part of the citizen science project will be launched early next year, in the format of a longitudinal study on water and water-related energy use in households.

Once again, we thank all participants for the time spent taking the survey. Responses will help us to better understand current perception and actual water use and water use behaviours in Irish homes, what this means in terms of household water-related energy use, and the potential and extent of emissions and cost reductions from household water use efficiency. 

Heat recovery at Penrhyn Castle

Ajeet Singh

Penrhyn Castle is a National Trust in Bangor, North Wales. The place is historically and archeologically a well-known tourist hotspot. Penrhyn attracts around more than 100,000 visitors annually, where 30% visitors are on a day trip and 70% during holiday [1].

Fig. 1. Penrhyn Castle views (Photos by Paul Coughlan).

A pilot heat recovery system was installed by Dwr Uisce in 2019 for a real time assessment of the thermal recovery potential from wastewater of the commercial kitchen, located in the café’ of Penrhyn Castle. Figure 2 illustrates the pilot thermal recovery system to recapture heat from the high temperature kitchen wastewater. The system has four key components namely two heat exchangers (HX) retrofitted to the drainpipe, a buffer tank (BT), and a heating interface unit (HIU) as shown in part 2b. The fresh cold water from the supply lines goes into the HX gains heat from the kitchen wastewater coming down into the vertical drainpipe. The preheated water from the HX accumulates in the BT. Based on the desired flow rate requirement at the hot water tap end for users, the quantity of preheated water goes in to the HIU. The HIU is coupled with a biomass boiler unit which act as an auxiliary heat source to further increase the temperature of the preheated water to a desired temperature level. The flow through the entire circuit has been achieved using water pumps and addition of heat to the preheated water in the HIU via mixing valve.

Fig. 2. Thermal recovery pilot setup installation for kitchen wastewater heat recovery: (a) a view of the installation site; (b) schematic of various components of the system for better insight.

Fig. 3. Temperature (in degrees Celsius) of the water accumulated inside the buffer tank.

Due to COVID-19, the monitoring was intermittently restricted in the year 2020-2021. In a recent visit, some members of our team visited the pilot site to perform some routine checks and found that the system had been recovering heat for 4 months from the mid-July to the first week of November 2021 (Figure 3). The plot in the figure shows the temperature of the preheated water, demonstrating a significant amount of thermal recovery from the high temperature kitchen wastewater. as per data archived.

With the Castle and café open to visitors again, our research investigation can proceed further. More updates on the ongoing monitoring will be posted on our website and social channels.

When is the replacement of conventional pressure reduction valves in our water distribution networks with PATs economically viable? What are the uncertainties?

By Djordje Mitrovic

Fig. 1a Pressure reduction valve (BERMAD, n.d.)

Some level of water loss occurs in water distribution networks during its operational lifetime no matter how well these are managed. For perspective, on the level of EU the values of water losses span from single digit values in Germany, Denmark and Netherlands up to around 45% in Ireland, with an average of 23% (The European Federation of National Water Services, 2017). As the relationship between the leakage and pressure has been well established, in the last 30 years, many pressure reduction valves (PRVs) have been deployed within WDNs around the world for pressure management purposes. In the United Kingdom some of the main water utilities operate in the range of 2,000 districted meter areas, where 50%–60% are pressure managed using PRVs (Vicente et al., 2016).

Fig. 1b Pump as turbine (KSB, 2020)

Nevertheless, the energy dissipated at PRVs is lost. Aiming to improve the energy efficiency of WDNs, since the beginning of the last decade researchers have started to explore the technological and economic feasibility of replacing these valves with different kinds of hydroelectric converters (Mc Nabola et al., 2011). So called pumps as turbines (or just PATs) have been pointed out as the most suitable technology for this purpose because of their lower cost for the sites with lower installation capacities (< 100kW) such as the ones occurring at PRVs within WDNs (Novara et al., 2019).

An upgrade of a PRV to a PAT based pressure reduction station is usually considered economically viable investment if the revenue generated by selling the electricity to the grid pays it back in less than 10 years or if its net present value (NPV) is positive 10 years after the investment (Fernández García et al., 2019).

A recent study from the literature carried out by Mitrovic et al. (2022) investigated the research question from the title. The authors argued that for two PRV sites of the similar average operating conditions, the uncertainties that can make a difference so that one is economically viable and the other not, are: variations of the operating conditions (flow and pressure), variations of total installations cost and electricity unit price. Finally, the results of the study showed that the calculated upper bound of economic viability (the most unfavorable scenario) coincides with a curve representing constant gross hydraulic power () of 12kW (see Fig. 2). In other words, the results implied that it is reasonable to expect that regardless of the uncertainty related to the variation of hydraulic parameters and the costs, that PRV sites possessing the gross hydraulic power higher than 12 kW should be economically viable for the upgrade.

Fig. 2: Bound of economically viable sites as a function of CR and ‖QH‖_2 . With CR – Ratio between the cost of PAT+generator assembly and total installation costs; ‖QH‖_2 – a variable quantifying the level of variation of flow and pressure at PRV sites.

References

BERMAD, n.d. Water Control Solutions - Bermad [WWW Document]. URL https://www.bermad.com/ (accessed 1.28.21).

Fernández García, I., Novara, D., Nabola, A.M., García, I.F., Novara, D., Nabola, A.M., 2019. "A model for selecting the most cost-effective pressure control device for more sustainable water supply networks". Water (Switzerland) 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11061297

KSB, 2020. Etanorm, Type Series Booklet [WWW Document]. URL https://shop.ksb.com/ims_docs/00/00215A9B03CE1EDA99949DD64453A09B.pdf (accessed 10.6.20).

Mc Nabola, A., Coughlan, P., Williams, A.P., 2011. "The technical & economic feasibility of energy recovery in water supply networks", in: Renewable Energy and Power Quality Journal. pp. 1123–1127. https://doi.org/10.24084/repqj09.569

Mitrovic, D., Novara, D., García Morillo, J., Rodríguez Díaz, J.A., Mc Nabola, A., 2022. "Prediction of Global Efficiency and Economic Viability of Replacing PRVs with Hydraulically Regulated Pump-as-Turbines at Instrumented Sites within Water Distribution Networks". J. Water Resour. Plan. Manag. 148, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0001483

Novara, D., Carravetta, A., McNabola, A., Ramos, H.M., Mc Nabola, A., Ramos, H.M., 2019. "Cost Model for Pumps as Turbines in Run-of-River and In-Pipe Microhydropower Applications". J. Water Resour. Plan. Manag. 145, 04019012. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001063

The European Federation of National Water Services, 2017. Europe’s water in figures.

Vicente, D.J., Garrote, L., Sánchez, R., Santillán, D., 2016. "Pressure management in water distribution systems: Current status, proposals, and future trends". J. Water Resour. Plan. Manag. 142, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0000589

Do we know when we have “enough”?

Isabel Schestak

This year’s International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM, 5-8 September 2021), broadcasted virtually from Stuttgart (Germany), gathered over 600 sustainability scientists and practitioners under the motto “Building a Sustainable Future Based on Innovation and Digitalization”. Research was presented which applies Life cycle thinking to a variety of areas such as bio-based materials, recycling technology, energy technologies, e-mobility, buildings and construction or urban lifestyle choices.

Dr. Auma Obama from Kenya, founder and executive director of the Sauti Kuu Foundation delivered an excellent keynote speech. She impressively contrasted (un-)sustainable eating and other daily-life behaviours of African and European societies, raising the question if we actually know when we have “enough”, no matter if in terms of food or other consumer products. The fact that trees in industrialised cities only grow on dedicated and enclosed spots on the side of the road or, that people buy soil in a store, are examples for a society detached from nature, according to Dr. Obama.

Isabel, our researcher from Bangor University, presented her research on heat recovery in distilleries in the session on “Sustainability of Business models and Innovations”, relevant to over 400 distilleries in the UK alone(1) and many more worldwide. Her study compares the potential energy, carbon and water savings achievable through three different heat recovery configurations in a distillery with the carbon, water and financial costs of the required heat recovery equipment. Based on primary data from Scottish distillery Arbikie, the research found that heat recovery can be viable from both an environmental and financial point of view. However, in order to maximise the heat recovery potential, heat and water sinks outside the distillery should be integrated in a heat recovery project.

(1) O’Connor, A., 2018. Brewing and distilling in Scotland - economic facts and figures. Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

Many thanks to Arbikie distillery for the fruitful collaboration enabling the heat recovery study and the funders of the Dwr Uisce project for supporting Isabel’s participation in the conference!

Isabel presented her work part of the Dwr Uisce project at this year’s virtual International Conference on Life Cycle Management on the heat recovery opportunities in whisky production

Isabel presented her work part of the Dwr Uisce project at this year’s virtual International Conference on Life Cycle Management on the heat recovery opportunities in whisky production

Wexford County Council has come on board to help promote and support our Citizen Science Project

County Wexford residents can now fill in the survey here and opt in to enter a prize draw sponsored by Wexford County Council.

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In September this year we launched a citizen science project to engage with and collaborate with the public to improve our understanding of water and water-related energy use in Irish homes to help us better understand the most effective means of improving the efficiency of household water and energy use.

The survey is the first of two parts of the project. We are asking households in Ireland to help us better understand what the current public perception and understanding of household water and water-related energy use.

We called out to County Councils and the four Climate Action Regional Offices (CAROs) in Ireland for their support and to help promote the project, as we believe the study is of great relevance for their work and efforts to get people on board with climate action projects.

Wexford County Council expressed an interest in the project and earlier this week a collaboration was established.

So, if you live in County Wexford, don’t miss out on this great opportunity to contribute to a piece of scientific research, help fight the climate crisis and win a great prize!

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Not based in County Wexford but interested in participating? Use the button below!