IWEX REVIEW
A spirit of positivity, shared goals and creativity was evident at IWEX 2010. Natasha Wiseman shares some of the highlights
held 20-22 April at the NEC in Birmingham as part of Sustainabilitylive!. And that was despite features like the Drilling & Tapping and BW’s own supply chain seminar being hit by the aeronautical fallout from Icelandic volcanic ash. A cynical view might be that a pre-AMP5 lull had made diaries more flexible. But the sense I got was that the industry was at last actively searching for the innovative solutions and technologies that have been trumpeted in policy reports, legislation and Ofwat’s decrees over recent months. There were certainly new technologies to
uncover. One that caught my eye was a ‘virtual fish’ for passive sampling being launched by the
A buzz in the air
‘A
buzzing event, a seriously buzzing event,” was how British Water’s Jeremy Bayfield described this year’s IWEX,
Paul O’Neill of Atlas Copco shares his expertise with a customer; PMP demonstrates its pipe sealing methods on site (below, left); show visitors (above)
National Laboratory Service (see Sampling & Monitoring supplement with this issue) following 20 years of research and development. The service says that this offers finer detection than any similar device on the market and can help with meeting the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. Another was the Difgen from Norwegian
manufacturer Zeropex (see below), a flow metering device that can capture energy from the flow in pipes and feed it back to the grid. The company already has the interest of Scottish Water, which is trialling the Difgen in Glenrothes. Or how about Atlas Copco’s latest ZS range of displacement screw blowers for wastewater treatment, which are, on average, 30% more
energy efficient than conventional lobe solutions (see Sustainable Water supplement with April’s WWT). Product manager Conrad Latham, told journalists assembled for a press conference: “The ZS will remove the tri-lobe from the portfolio – we don’t see it as a future technology.” Technology wasn’t the only way to get fresh ideas and the seminars on subjects including floods and SUDS, carbon reduction and sustainability and wastewater treatment and asset management were mostly packed with delegates. Pooling knowledge and learning from other professionals is surely the best way to achieve a sustainable future water infrastructure and this year IWEX, and its umbrella event Sustainabilitylive!, provided just that. ■■■
display at IWEX. The device can generate 60kW of power when placed in a water pipe as a pressure reducing device, so it generates through differential pressure not water flow. The company has opened its first UK office in Maidenhead in April and is trialing Difgen with Scottish Water at a site in Glenrothes. The system will cost £100,000 to install but is expected to generate £20,000 in power generation annually. If the trial is successful, the utility expects to roll the device out across its networks. The system has been in operation in the
Talking about micro-generation
A
new arrival to the UK water market is Norwegian micro-generation specialist Zeropex, which had its Difgen system on
Zeropex’s installation of Difgen at Grand Rapids in Michigan, USA
StavangerWater system for over 12 months and Zeropex engineer, Ottar Kvindesland says that monitoring the site has proven that Difgen is effective in producing power from pressure reduction and that it does not have any adverse impact on the water network.
34 Water & Wastewater Treatment May 2010
Jone Bakke, vice-president of water at
StravangerWater & Sewage Company has said of the system, “It functions better than an ordinary valve. It adjusts quickly to the set downstream pressure, and we avoid problems like water hammer that we experience with standard pressure reducing valves.” Global marketing manager Ash Gupta told WWT:
“We have been approved by The Carbon Trust and may consider building a plant in the UK, but only when volumes justify. We’ve had enquiries from several British water and power utilities.” Zeropex is in the process of putting Difgen into Grand Rapids in Michigan. The company sees the US and UK as its target export markets. ■■■
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