The risk free initiative dedicated to helping innovative technologies mitigate climate change
Friday, 7 July 2023
The Trial Reservoir has supported five successful trials, meaning five innovative new technologies have been brought to market with the aim of mitigating climate change!
What is the Trial Reservoir?
The Trial Reservoir initiative was launched by the Isle Group in November 2021 with the aim of accelerating the adoption of innovative technologies in the water industry and by water users in adjacent sectors. All technologies involved in the Trial Reservoir mitigate climate change, helping achieve the ambitious goal of a net-zero environment by 2050.
The initiative provides a reservoir of loan funding to commercial stage technology companies who wish to embark on a trial in an operational environment. Before the trial begins, the technology company will have to gain commitment from an end user to implement the technology if the trial is a success; this ensures that the technology will continue its journey and contribute to positive changes in the environment.
One of the best things about the Trial Reservoir is that it is practically risk free for everyone involved!
The Trial Reservoir will fund the trial via a loan to the technology vendor, and if the trial is successful the loan must be repaid, however, if the trial is unfortunately unsuccessful the loan is totally written off, meaning this is a completely risk-free opportunity!
Successful trials from the Trial Reservoir
So far, the Trial Reservoir has supported six completed trials, five of which have been successful:
Advantageous Systems
Advantageous Systems (ADS) partnered with the Trial Reservoir to fund their game changing pilot trial with Linneman Ranches in California, USA. The wells of central California are the main water source to sustain agriculture in the region, but the brackish groundwater contains high concentrations of total dissolved solids and geologically occurring, recalcitrant elements like boron, which is difficult to remove requiring membrane technology such as reverse osmosis (RO).
The ADS magnetic particle treatment (MPT) adsorption system is the first-of-its-kind non-membrane technology to selectively remove contaminants with minimal energy consumption. The trial focused on well water treatment for agricultural utilisation, selectively removing boron upstream of a RO system. The trial aimed to drastically lower the electrical energy demand of the water treatment process without compromising the treated water quality. The trial achieved successful results, meeting all its targets. All the farm’s needs for water quality and volume were met, and the MPT system now saves between 35 and 50% of the energy consumption originally used. The trial achieved an energy saving of 0.23 tonnes of CO2e emissions p/m and now 90% of the water is treated water with just 10% being rejected.
Arumloo
Arumloo is the most recent successful trial in the Climate Change Trial Reservoir. Millions of people worldwide don’t have access to safe sanitation, and this combined with the global water insecurity inspired Arumloo’s main belief, everyone has the right to reliable, dignified sanitation.
The vortex shaped toilet (the Arumloo) is an ultra-low flush toilet that uses just 2 litres to clear waste from the bowl without wasting water and without air getting trapped under the toilet paper, so not only does it save water with every flush, but it also reduces the need for multiple flushes. Arumloo is aiming to increase access to sanitation in schools, rural areas, and high-density urban areas. The poor condition of school sanitation facilities in emerging economies, for example across Africa, has a negative impact on the learning environment, therefore, the purpose of the Arumloo trial was to demonstrate the performance and acceptability of the Arumloo low flush toilets in a school. 180 toilets were supplied to NextGen Water Savings Solutions for installation at a trial school in Gaborone, Botswana, for the pupils and staff. The Arumloo installation reduced the total water use at that school by 93.2%. That figure includes water savings from replacing old leaking toilets with new ones. The low flush toilets and hand basins produced a 71% water saving, which is a significantly better result than the original target of 50%. Every litre of tap water saved represents a 3 kg CO₂e saving, by saving the energy used to treat and supply potable water in Botswana.
eWATER Services
The Trial Reservoir supported eWATERservices in their recent successful trial with the aim to install a new, solar- and gravity-powered water treatment and supply network in Wellingaraba, a rural village in The Gambia. The loan was for three eWATER Smart Taps to be installed as a trial with the hope that an average of 1,000 litres of clean water would be dispensed from each Smart Tap, each day. The three taps have dispensed an average of 4,579 litres per day over a two-month period.
Throughout the trial period there have been 1,493 tap users in the communities with over 1,011,745,870 total litres dispensed. As well as providing 24/7 access to safe, clean drinking water, eWATERservices employs and trains people in the local community to build, maintain and repair the systems. Environmentally the trial has saved an estimated 375 tonnes of CO2 in the last year and has had a huge social and beneficial impact on the local communities.
Orège and Yorkshire Water
Recently, the Trial Reservoir partnered with Orège and Yorkshire Water on a successful pilot trial. Yorkshire Water is on the hunt for innovative strategies to combat increasing sludge haul and disposal costs as well as rising polymer costs and tightening regulation. The Orège SLG system is a very simple technology that provides a short economic payback by reducing sludge volume for hauling and disposal whilst decreasing polymer consumption and increasing throughput and solid capture rate.
The aim of the trial from Yorkshire Water’s perspective was initially to demonstrate the technology and purchase one plant thickening unit, with the view to identify how the technology could improve processes within the wider business.
The SLG technology uses air and energy exchange to modify the sludge theology and create an emulsion. The bound water is released and the SLG sludge floats. Next, stabilising polymers are added which completes the flocculation process. The flocculated SLG sludge is then treated by the dewatering equipment already in place. The trial’s success factors included satisfactory filtrate and solid quality, and the ability for all sludge to be tankered and offloaded successfully with each full load taking no longer than 15 minutes to unload. The trial focused on just one treatment site in Yorkshire Water’s portfolio and has greatly reduced the amount of sludge transportation needed, resulting in the equivalent of removing 40,000kg of CO2 per year from their business-as-usual operations.
Transcend and Xylem
Another of the Trial Reservoir’s successful trials featured ground-breaking wastewater treatment works (WWTW) design software that has changed the way engineers create their desktop designs for end-to-end WWTW. This trial involved two cutting edge companies, Xylem and Transcend. Transcends mission is to transform the way utility asset owners, technology suppliers and engineering firms assess and design critical infrastructure. They developed a the Transcend Design Generator (TDG), a cloud-based proprietary software that fully automates the preliminary design of vertical assets including water, wastewater, electrical substations, and other critical infrastructure in eight hours or less, as well as enabling the design engineer to minimise the environmental footprint of the design.
The trial found a reduction in turnaround time for design tenders from 3 weeks to 1-2 weeks using the TDG, leading to a 50% reduction in time spent from design to proposal submission. There is potential to further reduce this time frame through refinement of the bespoke TDG tool. The TDG enabled engineers to optimise WWTW design, allowing multiple goals to be achieved within the process.
Overall, the five successful trials funded by the Trial Reservoir are responsible for saving over ~3,500 tonnes of CO2e to date. Find out more about these successful trials below.
The Trial Reservoir has grown a vast list of technology companies looking to embark on a risk free pilot trial. We are looking for end-users who can BENEFIT from these innovative technologies and bring them to action.
If you’re thinking this sounds like a great risk free opportunity and would like to get involved, please get in touch today and let’s discuss how we can make this unique opportunity a reality.
Email: jo.burgess@isleutilities.com