INTERNATIONAL NEWS Oil and gas drives water-tech innovation


A growing trend towards investment in water technology start-ups by global oil and gas companies has been revealed in a new report from the London Environmental Investment Forum (LEIF) in association with Global Corporate Venturing.


The water technology needs of oil and gas giants are growing considerably as they move into more water-scarce regions, expand


into controversial resources such as shale gas and oil sands and as new regulations are introduced on the treatment of wastewater. LEIF chairman Tom Whitehouse, who wrote the report, said: “The oil and gas industry needs to reduce its water costs, get water to work more efficiently in extracting hydrocarbons and stay on the right side of the politics of water. “For big energy, water venturing


is not driven by the desire to diversify. It is directly related to the future success of


their core


business, the extraction of hydrocarbons.”


Speaking of its water-tech investments, ConocoPhillips Technology Ventures’ George Coyle said, “The common theme across all of them is that they have the potential to significantly reduce our water costs and improve our


stewardship of the environment.” The emerging areas of water- tech innovation highlighted in the report, which was sponsored by Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies and US law firm Baker Botts, are ‘end of pipe’ technologies applied to wastewater production during oil and gas extraction and ‘enabling’ technologies focused on reducing or eliminating water use during extraction.


University wins water-stress Rochdale firm wins research funding desal orders


Specialist water treatment company Salt Separation Services (SSS) has begun production of a containerised water purification system, deaerator column and storage tank for a North Sea gas platform. The £1.1M order from Total


E&P Nederland is


for installation on the F15-A5 platform that produces gas from Volpriehausen sandstone. Performance of the well has been reduced by salt deposition, which accumulates in the well riser and limits the gas flow. Seawater is to be treated and injected to the


well riser to dissolve the salt. Due to the fact that the platform is unmanned, chemical use has been kept to a minimum and the unit has been designed to operate automatically. The installation includes over-sized pre-filtration to improve efficiency and a two-pass reverse osmosis (RO) system. The Rochdale-based company has also won two contracts for UK military installations. The first, from the Ministry of Defence, is worth approximately £2.3M and is for an RO plant for drinking water on HM Vanguard Submarines. The


equipment will replace


aging distilling plants which have become difficult to support. A smaller £500,000 award will see the largest ship in Royal Naval Service Fleet Auxiliary, RFA Fort Victoria, fitted with two SSS RO desalination plants. The contract from Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders includes a 5m3/d plant to provide high quality ‘technical’ water.


Anglia Ruskin University has been awarded £175,000 from the EC to investigate and promote new ways of improving water efficiency in the region. The East of England is the second most water-stressed part of Europe behind south-east Spain, and is likely to face severe water shortages over the next 20 years due to significant changes in rainfall patterns and a steadily increasing population.


Working in partnership with


urban regeneration company, Opportunity Peterborough, Anglia Ruskin’s Global Sustainability Institute is leading the East of England network of the €2M Water Efficiency in European Urban Areas project.


Other partners on the three- year scheme are the Provence- Alpes-Côte d’Azur


region in the


south of France; Aragon in Spain; Eastern Galilee in Israel, and the Mediterranean island of Malta.


Ireland: efficiency can reduce cost, says consultancy


Consumers and businesses in the Republic of Ireland can be spared the full cost of water services in the future through the early adoption of water recycling, energy recovery, and big data analytics by Irish Water, a leading water expert told the Byrne Looby Water Forum in Dublin in June. Speaking at the Water Forum 2013, Sam Murdock, director of water services with Byrne Looby Partners Consulting Engineers, said that by implementing a new approach in the treatment and delivery of water, Irish Water could ensure that


Algae technology attracts investment


US wastewater treatment specialist World Water Works (WWW) has made an investment in Aquanos Energy, an Israeli company that has designed a patent-pending algae-based treatment process


wwtonline.co.uk


for wastewater purification and renewable energy production. The company says it can further enhance and optimise the Aquanos process using its algae harvesting technology optimised (AHTO)


expertise along with moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs).


WWW president and chief executive Mark Fosshage said,


“I


see this technology as a significant disruptor


in the wastewater


industry, and we are very excited about this partnership. Our core technology will help complement their process to take the technology to the next level by producing sellable products.”


August 2013 Water & Wastewater Treatment 11


infrastructure is developed without end users having to pay the full cost of water services.


He cited a range of examples of


where greater efficiencies can be achieved, including energy recovery from wastewater, wastewater reuse and the use of big data analytics to improve the lifespan and cost of maintaining infrastructure assets, including water leaks.


“The efficient usage of water has to be considered in any national plan to reform water service delivery,” Murdoch told delegates.


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