means we tend to only put in proven or tried and tested technologies. You could say the UK industry is forced to play it safe.
Despite being publicly owned, the Dutch utilities benefit from government commitment to research and development and wide-scale public support. The push to reduce energy consumption has been the catalyst for the Netherlands to invest in strategic R&D to develop new technologies they can share and this is now giving them an impressive lead over other countries. In the UK, as we no longer create such technologies ourselves, we are beginning to implement some of the new Dutch technologies. For example United Utilities, Severn Trent and Anglian Water are putting in low carbon Dutch technology for the treatment of high strength ammoniacal liquors.
Collaboration is key Another big advantage the Dutch have is their very real
culture of collaboration especially among the Dutch water sector, utilities and government. The industry has developed generic energy factory flow sheets for short and medium term approaches, as well as the long term strategic NEWater 2030 roadmap.
Many of the energy factories business cases have been developed with multiple consultancy involvement, leading to best practise solutions for specific sites.
Some water companies are coming together to develop energy factories in order to produce the most holistic and sustainable solution. This collaboration has even extended to joint collaboration with regional waste companies. This is leading to concepts which optimise the energy balance and also maximise the ability to reuse energy (heat) sources. At the moment there is the intention for Energy Factories in Den Bosch (400.000 p.e), Tilburg and Amersfoort.
The Dutch government funds and collaborates with consultants, water companies and universities – looking at the blue sky, trialling and developing new technologies. These collaborations lead to new products and processes which in turn lead to commercial products. We now have a very different culture in the UK and we do very little R&D and minimal collaboration.
Waste as a valuable resource Currently the focus in Holland is on Energy Factories, but
the challenge is to combine the three concepts into one: the Nutrient_Energy_Waterfactory: NEWs. The STW of the future will be a NEWater factory, where waste is seen as a valuable resource, Each concept involves a different set of treatment techniques and the capital cost will play an important role in the selection of the treatment technologies within all three concepts. The Energy factory aims at maximising energy recovery from sewage sludge, whereas the Nutrient factory aims at recovering valuable resources (phosphorus) from wastewater. The Water factory aims at reusing wastewater for different purposes, such as process water, boiler feed water, recreation water and agricultural water.
These NEWater factory concepts are transferable to the UK water industry, which is increasingly under pressure to reduce energy consumption and maximise renewable energy generation. Additionally, UK water companies are now recognising the real need to recovery and recycle phosphorus as its global price increases and its global reserves reduce. So if there is a will there is definitely a way to create UK Energy Factories.
A copy of the report is available by contacting STOWA
ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE |95|
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192