Nine entries win £36m of innovation competition funding

Ofwat last week announced nine winning entries would share £36m of funding from the inaugural Water Breakthrough Challenge, the main competition in its new Innovation Fund.

The winning bids were:

Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative

Artificial Intelligence of Things Enabling Autonomous Waste Catchments

The flexible local water supply schemes pilot

Transforming the energy balance of wastewater treatment

Triple Carbon Reduction

Alternative approaches to phosphorus removal on rural wastewater treatment works

Water neutrality at NAV sites

The Fair Water

Safe Smart Systems

Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative (CaSTCo) was awarded £7.1m to “revolutionise the way crucial data about England and Wales’ water environment is gathered and shared, in particular on the health of the nation’s rivers. This project will ensure there is robust evidence base for tackling environmental challenges with direct support for local evidence gathering and community engagement in eight demonstration catchments, and a national framework of standardised tools and training”.

Project lead: United Utilities. Project partners: The Rivers Trust, Thames Water, South West Water, Southern Water, Welsh Water, Anglian Water, Severn Trent, Yorkshire Water, Northumbrian Water, Affinity Water, South East Water, Earthwatch Institute, The Freshwater Biological Association, The Zoological Society of London, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Cardiff University, University of Exeter, Natural Course EU Life Integrated Project, Hummingbird Technologies.

Artificial Intelligence of Things Enabling Autonomous Waste Catchments was awarded £2m to pilot the use of AI that monitors a waste catchment area in real time to minimise the risk of flooding and sewage pollution, using new and integrated approaches for spill prevention.

Project lead: Severn Trent. Project partners: South West Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, Hafren Dyfrdwy, Northumbrian Water, Microsoft, Rockwell, British Telecom, Blackburn-Starling, 8Powe, National Cyber Security Centre, Exeter University.

The flexible local water supply schemes pilot received £620,000 to test the design of localised third-party water supply and treatment. “The project could deliver huge benefits for drought resistance and put more freedom into the hands of water retailers to incentivise business customers to save water.”

Project lead: Bristol Water. Project partners: Binnies, RWE, Castle Water, University of the West of England.

Transforming the energy balance of wastewater treatment – this bid was awarded  £6m to decarbonise wastewater treatment – reducing nitrogen oxide emissions and recovering beneficial resources including phosphorus and nitrogen.

Project lead: Thames Water. Project partners: Welsh Water, University of South Wales, South West Water, and United Utilities.

Triple Carbon Reduction won £3.5m to use novel technologies to target a step change reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and electricity use in used water treatment, and provide a new renewable energy source through green hydrogen production – a 'triple carbon' synergy and contribution towards achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Project lead: Anglian Water. Project partners: Jacobs, Oxymem, Element Energy, Northern Ireland Water, Severn Trent, Scottish Water, University of East Anglia, Brunel University, Cranfield University.

Alternative approaches to phosphorus removal on rural wastewater treatment works – this project will provide a holistic view of what can be achieved using alternative phosphorus removal approaches, reducing cost and carbon.

Project lead: United Utilities. Project partners: Southern Water, Thames Water, University of Portsmouth, Power & Water, Evergreen, Hydro Industries, Kolina.

Water neutrality at NAV sites – winning £2.9m, this project will minimise water demand and offset water consumption with new technologies at new housing developments, to ensure the total water use in the community remains the same as it was before the new homes were built. This will involve installing water saving devices in customers’ homes; and installing larger technologies on commercial buildings – for example, greywater recycling and ultra low flush toilets. There are three different NAV sites involved, which will allow the partners to trial different approaches, as well as helping smaller companies break into the market.

Project lead: Affinity Water. Project partners: Albion Water BUUK Infrastructure UK No 2, Propelair - Phoenix Product Development,H2OiQ, SDS, Hydraloop International, Skewb.

The Fair Water project secured £3.8m to to test and develop more effective and sustainable water and energy solutions for people’s homes – including those on low-incomes, the elderly and vulnerable – to find tailored solutions to reducing carbon through energy and water efficiency. This will focus on encouraging behaviour changes and developing new product innovations for task-based water use in the home.

Project lead: Northumbrian Water. Project partners: Northern Gas Networks, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Proctor & Gamble Technical Centres, National Energy Action.

Safe Smart Systems was awarded £7.5m to use AI and mathematical optimisation to improve long-term operational resilience in the face of climate change and rapid population growth. It will identify, predict, and manage vulnerabilities to reduce leakage, interruptions and pressure issues across the whole water cycle.

Project lead: Anglian Water. Project partners: Affinity Water, Airbus Defence and Space, BIM4Water, Bristol Water, Centre for Digital Built Britain, Google DeepMind, Imperial College, Jacobs, Microsoft, Portsmouth Water, Skanska, South West Water, Unity Software, The University of Sheffield.