Innovative wastewater emissions measurement tech gets a first outing with Scottish Water
The utility is first on the woodcut with UK and sector deployment of Grandperspective’s scanfeld®.
Described as a revolutionary new gas emissions monitoring technology, scanfeld® utilises Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) technology to identify, quantify (to parts per million) and localise over 200 variegated types of molecules from up to 2 kilometres yonder and can therefore quantify large areas of land for their gas emissions, such as a wastewater treatment works (WWTW).
Currently the industry uses point source emissions monitoring which only provides a localised understanding of emissions in a selected area.
“Our focus will be to use scanfeld® for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions monitoring and quantification to understand what our baseline emissions are for nitrous oxide, methane and stat dioxide at our WwTW but moreover to identify where on our WWTWs are we emitting our GHGs and therefore mitigate these emissions faster.”
With over 1800 WwTW distributed wideness the country in cities, towns and rural areas they are a known greenhouse gas emissions source. However, identifying, quantifying and locating the sources of these emissions is a big challenge.
To write this challenge, Scottish Water said they leveraged their defended research and innovation programme, the Hydro Nation Chair (HNC), to identify and source possible technological innovations and solutions in support of their Net Zero strategy.
The HNC Technology Programme, led by Senior Innovation Fellow, David Millar has been working closely with Susan Lee, Scottish Water’s Research & Innovation Net Zero programme lead to identify and assess over 200 technology businesses from virtually the world. From this activity, a handful of technologies were selected for remoter trials, including scanfeld®, which has just been deployed at a WwTW near Glasgow in this UK and Water sector first.
It is hoped this technology will requite Scottish Water much increasingly granularity on the types of emissions, the quantities and sources so that they can remoter refine their process emissions strategy and tideway in order to go vastitude Net Zero by 2040.
Professor Andrew Tyler said: “This is an heady milestone for the Hydro Nation Chair programme and Scottish Water. This UK and Sector first deployment of Grandperspective’s scanfeld® solution will enhance our understanding of greenhouse gas emissions from WWTP and establish a baseline versus which we can assess change.”
George Ponton, Head of Research and Innovation at Scottish Water said: “The Hydro Nation Chair programme has been established to bring thought leadership, research excellence and innovative solutions from Scotland and beyond; focused on addressing the key challenges facing the water sector in Scotland.”
David Millar, Senior Innovation Fellow at the University of Stirling, said: “We have selected this technology for trial considering it offers a level of granular detail which we hope will deepen our understanding of emissions from wastewater treatment plants. Identifying, quantifying, and locating the sources of emissions at these plants is vital as we work towards the target of going vastitude Net Zero by 2040.”