Transforming treated sludge into green electricity: Ofwat awards trailblazing innovations in latest Water Breakthrough Challenge

The project will demonstrate how a treatment method called Hydrothermal Oxidation can transform biowaste management in the water industry. This could create new and exciting ways to reuse resources by recovering nutrients and energy, all while helping us reach Net Zero emissions and eliminate landfilling biosolids and harmful air pollution.

The risk of flooding in London from heavy rain is increasing. This project incentivises utility companies to refill some of the 165,000 holes they dig in London every year with ‘sustainable drainage systems’ (such as raingardens). These will reduce strain on drains from rainwater and create a greener city.

Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) is used to remove organics, such as pesticides and taste and odour compounds. GAC needs to be regenerated thermally, typically every 3 years, which is both costly and carbon intensive. This project will investigate different ways to regenerate GAC locally reducing both financial and carbon costs.

METREAU will ready Microbial Electrolysis Cells for scaled use in wastewater utilities to support against capacity pressures, reduce energy needs and carbon footprint and recover resources of economic value. A high-performing mobile unit will be developed for companies to evaluate the benefits to their wastewater treatment, ready for roll out.

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are synthetic chemical compounds that exist in water. Most PFAS are so durable that they won’t break down in the environment for many years, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.”  The project will investigate treatment options for removing and destroying concentrations of PFAS from water.

Pipebot Patrol will develop an autonomous sewer robot that lives in the sewer, constantly inspecting and raising alerts to the precise location of blockages, as they are beginning to form. This proactive approach allows maintenance teams enough time to react before sewer flooding occurs, keeping sewage where it belongs.

Pipebots for Rising Mains Phase 2 builds on work successfully completed through previous rounds of the Water Breakthrough Challenge. The project will develop technology for condition assessment inspections in live sewer rising mains to enable rehabilitation works to be planned and prioritised, reducing the risk of failure leading to pollution.

This project has partnered with Nectar, the UK’s largest loyalty scheme and customer behaviour experts to develop a utility-sector first: using smart meter gamification to incentivise customers to reduce their consumption by awarding points for water-efficient behaviour. This can also drive lower water and energy bills for customers.

This project uses AI tools to develop and deploy smart water quality sensors across catchments. Developing this virtual capability will aim to increase the accuracy and quality of data across the sector, improving reliability for our customers and to protect the environment.

SuDS-iQ will deliver a national online collaborative Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) platform that will support a collective understanding of what SuDS are, how SuDS work, and the benefits they provide. The platform will accelerate efficiencies in partnership working and consideration for and implementation of environmentally beneficial drainage solutions.

Support-for-All will be a national, secure, cross-sector platform sharing Priority Services Register (PSR) and other vulnerability data between water, energy, telecommunication and support organisations, ensuring a better experience for vulnerable customers. Supporting a ‘tell-us-once’ approach and utilitising enhanced matching, customers will receive consistent and accurate support across their utility services.

Wastewater holds a substantial amount of heat energy that could help the UK in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions. However, this resource remains largely untapped. The goal of this project is to encourage widespread adoption of in-sewer heat recovery by showcasing a reliable technical and commercial solution.

By-products from wastewater treatment are carefully managed. The project will investigate biochar production as an alternative to conventional biosolids management practices. Biochar is a charcoal-like product that can be created from sewage by-products. Biochar has several potential benefits, including improving soil fertility, sequestering carbon, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Leakage of drinking water from buried networks is increasingly unacceptable, but replacing water mains is costly and protracted. Repairing hidden leaks must therefore be increased sustainably and this project will develop technology to repair leaks from within live water mains, without disruptive excavation sand with minimal interruptions to water supplies.

This project aims to deliver the first continuously operating, sludge-fed UK-based pyrolysis demonstration plant. Pyrolysis (a high temperature process with no oxygen present) can be used to recycle sludge to maximise the value of biosolids; ensuring a circular economy and reducing the requirement for sludge to be recycled to agricultural land.

This project will develop open-source, scalable, digital models to inform effective action to tackle waterbody pollution. Thier novel use of Machine Learning will efficiently analyse existing data and new diverse data inputs. This will unlock new insights into the complex factors impacting waterbodies, bringing deeper understanding and accelerating positive change.

This multi-partnership consortium, led by Yorkshire Water, identified Advanced Thermal Conversion (ATC) Gasification as an alternative approach to ‘Sludge to land’. This will allow them to prove the technical and economic viability of gasifying 100% sewage sludge and provide the water industry with the confidence to exploit the technology globally.

Ofwat’s £200 million Innovation Fund aims to grow the water sector’s capacity to innovate, enabling it to better meet the evolving needs of customers, society and the environment. It is encouraging new ways of working that go beyond business-as-usual innovation practices in the water industry, in particular, increasing and improving collaboration and building partnerships from within and outside the water sector.  The Innovation in Water Challenge, Water Breakthrough Challenges 1-4, and Water Discovery Challenge were delivered by challenge prize experts Challenge Works in partnership with Arup and Isle Utilities. Following the first three of these, Ofwat received 40 submissions in response to its consultation about the future direction of the Fund.  

In July 2022 Ofwat set out its headline decisions on the approach we will take for the Innovation Fund for 2022-25. Ofwat consulted on its proposal to extend the Innovation Fund beyond 2025 in ‘Creating tomorrow, together: consulting on our methodology for PR24’ and will now consider extending the Fund. Ofwat consulted on its proposals for the innovation fund beyond 2025 in ‘Ofwat innovation fund consultation – approach for 2025-30’, including doubling the size of the fund to £400million for 2025-30. The consultation closed on 30 April 2024. Ofwat will announce its final decisions later in 2024.  

The Innovation Fund forms part of Ofwat’s approach to innovation in the water sector. Ofwat with the Environment Agency and Drinking Water Inspectorate also runs StreamLine, a joint service for innovators and businesses to get informal regulatory advice.   

Challenge Works is a global leader in the design and delivery of high-impact challenge prizes that incentivise cutting-edge innovation for social good. In the last 10 years, we have run more than 80 prizes, distributed £84 million in funding and engaged with 12,000 innovators.

Challenge prizes champion open innovation through competition. We specify a problem that needs solving, but not what the solution should be. We offer large cash incentives to encourage diverse innovators to apply their ingenuity to solving the problem. The most promising solutions are rewarded with seed funding and expert capacity building support, so that they can prove their impact and effectiveness. The first or best innovation to solve the problem wins. This approach levels the playing field for unknown and previously untested innovators so that the best ideas, no matter their origin, are brought to bear on the most difficult of global challenges. Visit us at challengeworks.org

Dedicated to sustainable development, Arup is a collective of designers, consultants and experts working globally. Founded to be humane and excellent, we collaborate with our clients and partners using imagination, technology, and rigour to shape a better world. Together we help our clients solve their most complex challenges – turning exciting ideas into tangible reality as we strive to find a better way and shape a better world. With a community of over 1700 water professionals, Arup is leading global thinking across key areas like innovation, resilience, net zero carbon and sustainable water management. Find out more: www.arup.com

Isle is a global team of independent scientists, engineers, business and regulatory experts with a common drive to make a positive environmental, social and economic impact through the advancement of innovative technologies, solutions and practices.  Our passion and expertise in technology and innovation enables us to connect expertise, investment and inspired ideas across the globe. At the core of all our activities is our ambition to make the world a better place. Find out more: www.isleutilities.com