ROUND TABLE: CARBON REDUCTION
A volume of
ccording
to
the
Environment
Agency, over 10B litres of sewage are produced every day in England and Wales. To treat this sewage requires approximately
2,800GWh of energy, equating to 1.7M tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. And of course, that’s only the operational carbon footprint… embedded carbon is quite another matter! No one is underestimating the size of the
challenge facing the water industry when trying to address the increasingly urgent issue of carbon footprint collection
networks.
reduction in wastewater Regulatory
demands
mean that water companies must reduce their operating costs by 15% by 2015 as part of UK Plc’s climate change responsibilities. As a major energy user, the water industry
must start scrutinising its energy-intensive processes, systems and equipment to deliver an effective approach to energy reduction. To encourage and enable debate and thought- leadership on this topical issue, WWT hosted a gathering of industry minds at the Institute of Directors’ impressive headquarters in Pall Mall.
24 Water & Wastewater Treatment April 2011
Sponsored by ABS Wastewater Technology, the event was chaired by Professor Tom Stephenson, head of the school of applied sciences at Cranfield University and adviser to the board of BluewaterBio. The directive for the round table event was
clear, to probe what actions water companies are taking to enable carbon footprint reduction in wastewater networks, what barriers they face, and how they believe the process can be accelerated. The first point put to the panel was whether
water companies have the necessary drive to stimulate the ‘right levels’ of activity that can underpin reductions in carbon emissions? To add extra weight to the question, Stephenson pointed out
that 90% of water/wastewater
costs are attributable to the underground asset, highlighting the scale of
the carbon
footprint challenge. First to take the baton was Paul Fisher, design & build standards manager – wastewater service at Severn Trent. “I think the industry has already achieved a
lot regarding the issue of carbon reduction but clearly we can do more,” he said, a sentiment
met with nods of agreement. “Energy use at water companies has escalated 100% since 1990 and this is simply not sustainable. We include energy usage in all our cost benefit analyses now – everyone wants to see less energy consumption, not least our investors.” Today, virtually every company’s Strategic
Direction Statement will cover the issue of energy
efficiency and carbon reduction
targets. Certainly at UKWIR, carbon reduction and energy efficiency is one of the key research themes in which the industry is investing as part of its innovation roadmap. “Due to the Climate Change Act there is little
doubt that sewerage assets will come under pressure,” said Stephen Bird, operations director at South West Water. “It’s vital that we examine how to best use the capacity of the existing sewage asset network before we start building more storm storage attenuation. Factors such as real time control and smart operation pumping stations are fundamental drivers.” Matthew Pluke, energy manager at Anglian
Water, supported these comments, adding that creating the right level of drive was easy
At WWT’s recent Round Table in central London, influential figures in the UK’s wastewater sector gathered to debate carbon footprint reduction initiatives. Steed Webzell listened in...
FROM WASTEWATER NETWORKS
DRAINING CARBON
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