Lots done, more to do…

By Aonghus Mc Nabola

The Dwr Uisce project has been a wonderful journey of discovery, working with talented people to produce important results for the water-energy nexus challenge. It has also been an unusually long journey for me, really starting in 2010 with the Interreg Ireland Wales project HydroBPT and ending in June this year with the Dwr Uisce project. The Interreg Ireland Wales programme have been great supporters of our work and I am personally sorry to see this no longer continuing considering the very long history of collaboration between Ireland and Wales it has built up, over around 30 years.

The project has achieved a number of important results in hydropower energy recovery and in wastewater heat recovery. It has also positioned the researchers involved to be able to continue this work beyond the Dwr Uisce project.

We are pleased to be commencing work on new projects focusing on developing fish-friendly micro-hydropower energy storage systems with the support of the Science Foundation Ireland, National Challenge Fund. We are also pleased to be commencing work on the further full-scale development of wastewater heat recovery systems in existing wastewater treatment processes with the support of the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund.

Developing the Dŵr Uisce Visualization tool (DUVis)

by Alex Rigby

Researcher Alex Rigby outside Bangor University, Bangor, Wales, UK.

I have been working closely with WP8 (Smart Specialisation Cluster) over the last 10 months developing the Dŵr Uisce Visualization tool (DUVis) to map interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration over the projects lifespan. I am thrilled to be a part of the Dŵr Uisce team, it has been a great chance to work with different domain experts and has been a real eye opener to the value of working across disciplines.

With the project coming to an end, we are putting the finishing touches on the DUVis tool. Figure 2 provides a general overview of the tool.

 

Overview of the DUVis tool

Our vision is that the tool will not only act as a practical way of reviewing the Dŵr Uisce project, but also showcase the benefits of a similar system for planning, documenting and encouraging collaboration in future projects. With the results of a project wide evaluation of the tool on the whole being very positive, we are preparing a paper to be submitted to peer-reviewed publication soon. In the coming weeks DUVis will be hosted on the Dŵr Uisce website but in the meantime you check out the current version here.

Setting (and then questioning) the benchmark, a venture in review

By Nathan Walker

Building on previous experience on performance analysis and love for efficiency, Dwr Uisce offered a perfect position for me, working primarily on benchmarking the water sector in Work Package 5. Throughout my time on the project, starting in 2017, colleagues and I have produced several research pieces, providing novel insights for water industry operators, benchmarking organisations, academia, energy efficiency analysts, regulators, and the wider public.

Early research focused on benchmarking the water sector in the UK and Ireland and making methodological and ideological advances, namely correcting for statistical bias, and incorporating more holistic sustainability frameworks. These studies showed that the sectors could on average reduce economic inputs by 19% and carbon outputs by 16% if they performed at the efficiency peak. Results further indicated the UK water sector has improved in productivity by 1.8% in recent years.

Figure 1. The energy intensity and associated greenhouse gas emissions for wastewater treatment.

 The largest single piece of research I conducted was the international benchmarking exercise on wastewater treatment energy intensity, which covered 321 companies from 31 countries (Figure 1). Findings highlighted that EU states had the largest average kWh/m3 with 1.18, which appeared a result of higher wastewater effluent standards. Associated emissions were also calculated, and showed a clean electricity grid can affectively mitigate wastewater treatment inefficiencies, exemplified by Norway who emit just 0.013 kgCO2e /m3 treated, despite consuming 0.60 kWh/m3.

A particularly conceptually challenging research article I produced was around benchmarking sustainability performance across sectors. A methodology was developed to compare 18 companies across the water and sewage, energy, and communications sectors. This was based on 21 metrics covering service, environmental and economic data, and generated performance scores relative to sector peers. Results showed two distinct clusters, one of 7 sector leaders and the other of 11 lower performers. Sky had the highest score of 13.5 (max 15), significantly outperforming the communications sector. Similarly, British Gas and SSE lead the energy sector, whilst Wessex, Severn Trent, and United Utilities lead the way for water companies. Top performers can assess top performers in other sectors to identify how they can continue improving, whilst lower performers can look within and across sectors to identify best practices.

Figure 2. Nathan during his presentation at the 2019 IWA Efficient conference in Manila.

In addition to this research, I would like to emphasise the value that collaboration played on the research and related outputs. Whether it was via national and international conferences, project stakeholders, or colleagues, the quality and usefulness of research was undoubtedly enhanced.

Lastly, I would like to thank all my colleagues, both former and current, and our partners and supporters in Ireland, Wales, and the UK for making this project happen, and making the past few years so fulfilling and enjoyable.

Figure 3. From left to right, Richard, Prysor, Nathan, and Isabel enjoy a belated graduation day. 

Shaping a learning community

By Paul Coughlan

Dŵr Uisce is the latest of a series on research projects to which Paul has contributed. It has been the longest, most ambitious and most complex.

In addition to the substantive technological objectives of Dŵr Uisce, Paul’s aim has been to understand and to improve upon the way in which collaborative and action-oriented projects can produce actionable knowledge in the context of application. He brought two core lenses to this challenge: network action learning and modes of knowledge production. In response, he has guided and explored the conduct of research that is transdisciplinary, collaborative with practice, learning-oriented and sustainable after completion of the project. In the collaborative context of contemporary research, such projects and the associated knowledge production are critical to enacting collaboration among and between networks of researchers and practitioners in the service of application.

 Paul has participated actively in previous EU-funded projects. Common across these projects has been an active engagement of multidisciplinary researchers with practitioners as co-researchers in the production of new knowledge. Earlier projects illustrate the challenges faced in different thematic areas: improvement of manufacturing operations, and innovation in food. Dŵr Uisce  focused on environmental sustainability of water production and distribution. Each project had a different objective and, correspondingly, the mix of participants and the associated disciplines differed. The objective of the earlier Hydro-BPT project was to understand how to reduce energy and carbon associated with water production and distribution. The Dŵr-Uisce project built on the Hydro-BPT research and has demonstrated the scope to improve the energy efficiency of the distribution of water resources in Ireland and Wales using integrated smart and low-carbon technology. In Dŵr Uisce, the participating organisations included two European universities, two water authorities, a conservation charity and over 250 organisations from Ireland and Wales (and beyond) who collaborated in exploring, demonstrating and diffusing energy reduction and carbon removal. Five disciplines interacted, drawing together engineering, environmental science, computer science, geography and management. Participation in the project enabled the development and implementation of governance, network management approaches and task structures which have included mechanisms to enable active collaboration among all participants as co-researchers. Key outputs include energy recovery system designs and diffusion through demonstration of installations in practice.

Common across the projects was the use of action learning and inquiry into how the insights generated by earlier actions informed the design of actions carried out later. Throughout, the action learning component was always explicit. However, as Dŵr Uisce progressed, it became apparent that the team was engaged in transdisciplinary research. This critical insight led to a new level of understanding of how to manage such a project.

Figure 1: the research project illustrated by an analogy with a flowerpot ecosystem, Drawing by R. Bellini

It also prompted an analogy with a flowerpot as an ecosystem. As illustrated (Figure 1), the Dŵr Uisce flowerpot sits on top of a substrate, the (earlier) HydroBPT project that formed the basis for the Dŵr Uisce project proposal and plan (the actual pot with soil). The pot contains (and constrains) the project plan: inside, the fertile environment (soil) and ideas (seeds) represent the ‘starting point’. However, the pot does not remain static: as the project grows, it generates and needs more soil. Funding (as water) keeps the project going (or the plant hydrated), while the funding programme (as the sun) channels the researchers’’ energy. Each researcher is represented by their T-shape of discipline and interaction capabilities which grow deeper and wider through engagement. The roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruit represent the activities under each project work package. As they grow, some flowers sustain each other, similar to how researchers, through their research, support and enable the work of other work packages. The bees, as pollinators, are the non-academic stakeholders who collaborate or exploit the project outcomes. They stimulate the emergence of fruit, which would have been impossible without these interactions. In a complementary way, we also developed a novel approach to visualising project meta data which can inform our understanding of the planning and management projects such as Dŵr Uisce.

The conclusion of Dŵr Uisce marks the end of an era and, especially, our collaboration with our “Welsh Cousins” in Bangor University. Over the course of the project, both our Welsh Cousins and colleagues in Trinity have grown as researchers: some have completed their doctoral research based upon their engagement in the project, while others have found an opportunity-rich context within which the deploy and develop further their skills and interests. It has been a privilege to have been a part of such a vibrant learning community.

What did I bring to the Dwr Uisce Team?

Roberta Bellini

I joined the Dŵr Uisce team in my role as Research Fellow at Trinity Business School in November 2020. My work and research have concerned the project area of Dissemination and Communication and it required a lot of interactions and collaboration with the other team members as well as with external stakeholders.

Having stepped back into academia after 13 years of working in a water management consultancy in the UK, and in formal and non-formal education settings in Ireland, I brought to the Dŵr Uisce team my practice-based experience in water-energy nexus science communication, outreach and industry engagement. This experience has helped me to contribute to designing, planning and delivering a number of events, from sustainability webinars to school workshops, lab visits and community events.

From the beginning I felt very welcome, everyone was available to meet me (online initially due to geographical distance and COVID restrictions) to explain their research topics and to explore ways we could work together. And this openness continued throughout my time on the project: so many ideas were born during online meetings! In particular, this happened frequently with Dr Aisha Bello-Dambatta in the Bangor team, when some ideas were taken from ideation stage to prototyping, to final product. An example is how we developed the Dŵr Uisce Climate Action Hackathon programme for secondary schools, of which we both are very proud! Another highlight has been my work with Dr Murali in developing four 3-D virtual tours of our demo sites. Take a tour at the bottom of the page here. Throughout, I have enjoyed working with my fellow team members to share our research output and water-energy efficiency solutions with the academic and non-academic communities.

Figure 1: participants to our youth and citizen engagement events

Overall, the programme of Dŵr Uisce events has reached out to over 1000 people between September 2016 and the end of the project. What is interesting to note is that 622 of them are youth and citizens (Figure 1). The remaining participants are from one of the 250 organisations in our Water-Energy Network working in a broad range of sectors, including local authorities, hospitality, food and drink industries, utility, energy and engineering consultancies.

I have managed our website and social media channels, and edited our Newsletter, all of which have amplified our impact through sharing knowledge and solutions. A summary of the overall Dŵr Uisce dissemination efforts, including peer-reviewed publication, newspaper and online media coverage, is illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Dwr Uisce overall media presence

The data demonstrate a keen interest in hearing about what research-based solutions can deliver when applied in real-life situations. Hopefully, businesses and organisations will replicate these energy- saving solutions which we have demonstrated in four different locations.

From a research perspective, I have been positively challenged to explore topics completely new to me like action learning, network action learning and research management. I have contributed to two journal articles and presented my work with schools at two international conferences in 2022. One of the highlights in my involvement in the research part of my work, is definitely the collaboration with the colleagues from Computer Science in Bangor University to develop a project metadata visualisation tool. Interested to know more? Join our webinar on February 15, 2023 at 1pm.

None of this could have happened without the interest and participation of non-academic partners, without the collaboration with other team members, without the support and encouragement of Professors Paul Coughlan and Aonghus McNabola, and last but not least, the funding from the Ireland-Wales programme. So, in summary, below is my experience on the Dŵr Uisce project!

 

In summary….

 

My journey in Dŵr Uisce and across the Ireland-Wales region

Madhu Murali

I started my position as a Research Fellow at Trinity College in September 2020, which was right in the middle of the Dŵr Uisce project (and a global pandemic). In the spirit of travel restrictions or lack thereof, I thought it might be nice to catalogue some of the places that I have had the opportunity to travel in the Ireland-Wales region for my last blog post alongside some updates on the projects I was involved in at these locations. We’ll start out with Dublin, where I did most of my work and follow on with some work across the Irish Sea in Wales before finishing in Tipperary back across the Sea.

Dublin: A lot of my initial time in Dublin was spent designing and testing the lab-scale dissolved air flotation tank in the Hydraulics Laboratory at Trinity College Dublin (pictured below). More information on this tank and the goals of our work is available here and here. We have progressed this work in the last few months by completing experiments with a trial heat exchanger in the tank to determine that a significant amount of heat can be recovered from this process without significantly impacting flow patterns within the tank. We have also replicated the temperature dynamics within the tank in a computer model to further assess heat recovery possibilities.

The lab-scale dissolved air flotation tank at Trinity College

Wastewater Temperature at one of the monitored locations from the Student Housing Complex

Bangor: My project in Bangor involved monitoring wastewater temperatures in a student housing complex with the aim of assessing the change in wastewater temperature within the sewer network of the complex and linking this with opportunities for wastewater heat recovery. Our monitoring identified the ‘student’ diurnal hot water usage trend which is very similar to standard residential use but transposed ahead some hours in line with the students’ later starts and nights! The modelling of wastewater temperature dynamics within these sewers is also approaching completion and will provide more insight on ideal locations for heat recovery within the complex’s sewer network.

Screenshot from the 3-D tour of the heat recovery demonstration site

 Tipperary: We completed our experimentation using the pilot heat recovery system at a meat processing plant. A 3-d tour of this demonstration site which describes it in detail is available here. Our experimentation with the heat recovery system showed that operational parameters like the temperature of the feed water to be heated and ambient temperatures had a significant impact on the operation of the heat recovery system and need to be properly considered in future designs.

Madhu Murali out in the wilderness of the Ireland-Wales region! (Blessington, Co. Wicklow)


I hope you enjoyed this small journey across the Ireland-Wales region and through some of the achievements of the Dŵr Uisce project.

I have loved my time working on these projects and being part of this research team. I’d particularly like to acknowledge and thank all my colleagues and our stakeholders for their assistance and understanding over the last two years!   

 

Reflections on my life as a PhD student in Dublin

Daniele Novara

When I first heard about the Dŵr Uisce project back in 2016, I was a MSc student in Portugal working on my final dissertation on the topic of hydropower energy recovery from water networks. Even if at the time I was planning to find a job in industry after graduation, I was immediately intrigued by the PhD position advertised at Trinity College Dublin. First of all, the topic was a perfect continuation of the research I was about to conclude with my MSc dissertation. And secondly, I found it extremely appealing that the work plan included a mix of theoretical studies and practical implementation of the technology in collaboration with a network of external partners.

Three months forward on an early September evening, I landed in Dublin ready for this new chapter of my life. While adjusting to life in the new country, I was pleased to get to know my colleagues and to find myself in a stimulating and relaxed working atmosphere. Sharing the office with a multicultural team of other researchers focused on different aspects of water and energy-related sustainability challenges was extremely gratifying, and I thoroughly enjoyed the social events, hikes, cycling trips and pub sorties. The frequent public events and team visits part of the Dŵr Uisce project allowed me do meet interesting people and discover the beautiful landscapes and culturally rich lands of Ireland and Wales.

Presenting on behalf of Dwr Uisce at an international conference

Within the many areas of research within the project, my work was focused on the development and implementation of a novel low-cost technology to recover energy from pressurized water pipes. On the one hand, the research effort involved academic connections and cooperation with other universities and research groups around the world working on similar technologies, which were developed thanks to a mix of online networking and conference attendance. On the other hand, equally important, the research also progressed through collaboration with industry and with potential end-users of the technology such as water utilities and landowners.

The inauguration of the Irish hydropower demonstration site

Once the first prototypes were tested in a lab environment at Trinity College, two partners were identified to roll out two full-scale Demonstration Sites: one turbine on an Irish drinking water network, and another one of similar size on a small rural hydropower scheme in mountainous Northern Wales.

In conclusion, I felt privileged to be part of a research project focused on extremely relevant topics of water and energy conservation and with a tangible lasting effect in terms of academic publications, established networks, best-practices dissemination and pilot plants installed in the field.

The smell of strawberry vodka

Isabel Schestak

From beginning to end, working on the Dŵr Uisce project has been a very fulfilling experience for me. The team here at Bangor, Wales – where I am based – and our colleagues in Dublin have been inspiring and supportive. I liked the international mix and the topics we collectively worked on: solutions for real world application, with the aim to drive sustainability of water-related energy use in businesses. My work package focused on the quantification and evaluation of environmental impacts and/or benefits through interventions in water and energy management, such as for example the installation of a heat recovery system in a business, using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology.

Learning happened both within the university walls and outside, through interactions and collaboration with various project partners. I learned a lot from our engineering colleagues about heat recovery potentials and heat exchangers, for instance. Seeing the installation of a drain water heat recovery system at the restaurant at Penrhyn Castle unfolding and finally making a real impact in reducing the carbon footprint with savings of 300 kg CO2 equivalent per year was very satisfying. In addition, while sharing my knowledge and experience with our non-academic partners to raise awareness and deepen their understanding of the environmental impacts and solutions, I, in turn, got insight into industrial processes and manufacturing techniques as well as current sustainability challenges from businesses such as creameries, breweries and distilleries, restaurants and hotels.

Photo 1: Site visit at Arbikie Distillery, Isabel (left) and distillery manager Kirsty Black (right)

What a privilege to get to step behind the scenes of a distillery and get to know each step of whisky making – sorry, I will keep the recipe to myself! I’ll never forget the pleasant smell I was surrounded with at Arbikie distillery when standing next to the strawberry vodka still (Photo 1).

It always made for a good introduction at a conference to say “I’m working on whisky”. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to meet some of the researchers I had been citing in my thesis and articles in real life at conferences and to present my work to a global audience (and learning how to overcome, at least to some extent, the anxiety of presenting on a big stage).

The visit to Ireland to attend the opening of the micro-hydropower installation at the Blackstairs Group Water Scheme site in Co. Wexford will forever be one of my special ‘Dŵr Uisce’ memories (Photos 2 and 3): how inspirational to see a motivated community donate the revenue generated from the pump-as-turbine to make positive change in a community in Uganda.

Photo 2: Isabel standing on the Blackstairs water tank while taking the group picture in Photo 3.

Photo 3: Opening of the micro-hydropower installation at Blackstairs GWS, Co. Wexford, Ireland.

I really hope that our work can continue making a long-lasting contribution to how businesses in the food & drink and hospitality sectors use water and energy. I’m particularly thinking of one of my favourite pieces of work, the heat recovery calculator for commercial kitchens. Try it out here, if you haven’t yet! It’s free.

Thanks to all my colleagues, former and current ones, and to our partners and supporters in Ireland, Wales and the UK for making this project happen, and your motivation and will to collaborate!

The Dŵr Uisce Project, a reflection

Richard Dallison

I started with the Dŵr Uisce project as PhD researcher at Bangor University in November 2016 having graduated from my undergraduate BSc in Geography with International Experience in July of the same year. Having had a keen interest in hydrology and hydropower during my undergraduate studies I was thrilled to get the opportunity to undertake a PhD in a project related to these fields. As a researcher in Work Package 7 (WP7) - Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation, I was taken in the direction of a topic that I had studied previously but had had little opportunity to explore in relation to river systems and water supply.

Through the course of the past six years, I have been delighted to be able to constantly develop new research areas based on the results of our previous work. Being part of such a long-running research project has afforded this luxury and has led to the project outputs seen today. I am proud of all of the research we have conducted in WP7 during the project, as well as the research papers published to date. Our initial work focused on water resource and water demand in five Welsh catchments, while our latest research has looked at streamflow projections in 585 catchments across the UK and Ireland, the implications for 531 hydropower schemes therewithin, and the impact of abstraction licences. This latest work I am particularly pleased with, as it is a culmination of the methods and skills developed through the project and represents a substantial contribution to research in the area. A paper of the results of the early stages of our latest research is currently under review for publication, with a further two papers under preparation for submission in the coming weeks.

Study catchment and front cover of report prepared for the Talybont Community Flood Group as part of our non-financial support scheme.

I have enjoyed working with organisations external to the project over the past few years, both in terms of chances to calibrate on research studies through discussions, data sharing, and opportunities such as site tours, as well as with organisations with whom we’ve provided support. I have found particularly rewarding our work with smaller organisations through our non-financial support scheme, providing guidance and advice for free which might otherwise have been unobtainable to them. A recent example of such work has been with Talybont Community Flood Group, where I, as part of WP7, was able to conduct a hydrological modelling study, highlighting areas of the Leri catchment, above the village, which contribute disproportionally to peak flows during flood events. This work pinpointed areas of the catchment to focus on with natural flood risk management measures, informing future work for the group and hopefully improving the village’s resilience to flood events in the long-term.

Presenting a poster at the General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in Montreal in July 2019.

I am also grateful to have had the opportunity to attend and share the results of my research at several conferences both within the UK and internationally. These events have been invaluable in providing opportunities to share and discuss research methods and results, as well as the direction of future research for the project, with the wider international scientific community. Such opportunities have certainly led to improvement in the research and outputs from WP7. While I have enjoyed attending all of the conferences I have been to, two particular personal highlights have been my first oral presentation at the European Geosciences Union meeting in April 2019, and convening and chairing a session entitled ‘Challenges and opportunities for hydropower generation under climate change’ virtually at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in December 2021.

I am also fortunate to have been able to develop my competencies in a variety of software and skill area over the length of the research. I was particularly privileged to be able to attend a training course in July 2018 on the use of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model, run by the model developers, which accelerated my research work at the time considerably. In addition to this, I have had the time to learn and implement the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) system, a water allocation software, and R Studio, for data visualisation, into my work. I have also continued to develop my GIS and programming abilities.

Bangor team PhD graduates at graduation ceremony in July 2022. Left to right: Dr Richard Dallison, Dr Prysor Williams (Bangor Dŵr Uisce Project Lead), Dr Nathan Walker, Dr Isabel Schestak.

Finally, one of the most obvious highlights of my involvement with the project has to be passing my PhD viva in December 2020 and the subsequent graduation ceremony in July 2022, a wonderful day of celebration. One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic was the delay of the 2021 graduation to summer 2022, giving the opportunity to graduate alongside fellow Bangor Dŵr Uisce PhD students Isabel Schestak and Nathan Walker, as well as Alex Rigby graduating with his MScRes.

I am very grateful to have been involved with Dŵr Uisce project, to all of the team members past and present (from both sides of the Irish Sea), to the partners we have worked with, and to everyone who has helped to shape my work as part of WP7 over the past six and half years.

Being involved in Dŵr Uisce has been a highly valuable opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary team, and a fantastic place to start my research career. Finally, my thanks must go specifically to Dr Sopan Patil (WP7 Lead) and Dr Prysor Williams (Bangor Team Lead) as well as to Dŵr Uisce funders, the European Regional Development Fund through Interreg Ireland-Wales Cooperation Programme.