Site Visit: First Process Emissions Trial
On 17th Oct 2022, Senior Innovation Fellow, David Millar ventured out on site at Scottish Water for the First Process Emissions Trial. Find out more about the trial and what it means in David’s blog.
My role within the Hydro Nation Chair R&I programme, as a senior Innovation Fellow is to help build the technological capability of Scottish Water so they can transition beyond Net Zero by 2040. No easy task on both fronts.
Technology is not the only answer to the Net Zero challenge, but it will certainly be a key enabler.
Behind the scenes I am busy building a transformational start-up support offering which will launch in 2023. This programme aims to support start-up companies and provide the necessary, one-stop shop of resources to help them survive and thrive. However, technological solutions don’t always have to be new, there are many technologies and developments already in existence that can be applied to the water sector and support Scottish Water’s realisation of their Net Zero ambitions. To that end, I have also been busy scouting the globe for existing technology aligned to our four core missions (Process Emissions, Infrastructure Emissions, Circular Economy and Enhancing the Natural Environment). Such scouting activities are called Horizon Scans and involve desktop searches of various resources, such as investor portfolios, conference agendas, personal networks and online platforms that monitor new technology start-ups from around the world. Some good old Google searches also came in useful.
From my Horizon Scan, I identified and made contact with over 180 technology business, offering an array of technologies that could be useful. Together with Programme Managers from Scottish Water, these 180 opportunities were then rigorously assessed and we have now selected a handful to take to field trial across the Scottish Water network.
On 17th Oct 2022, we reached a milestone in this process with our first technology provider, Grandperspective, visiting from Germany to scope out the Laighpark wastewater treatment works near Paisley. The site visit involved Gerd from Grandperspective; Susan Lee (Scottish Water’s Net Zero Progamme Lead); Chris Bonnington (Scottish Water Project Manager); myself and Laighpark Operations technicians and electrician.
We were met in Paisley with the fairly standard mix of very windy, chilly and wet weather, to which Gerd from Grandperspective noted “you certainly get some interesting weather around here!”
Most process emissions sensors are based around commonly used Nondispersive InfraRed (NDIR) Spectroscopy. This technology requires the gas needing measured to enter a sample chamber before it can be analysed. For open plan facilities, such as wastewater treatment plants, this methodology can prove difficult to analyse whole site emissions due to the influence of wind, weather and the potential that gases of interest don’t do as their told and enter the sample chambers when needed. To get effective and reliable measurements, you would also require a considerable number of sensors across the site.
Grandperspective offers something more innovative called Scanfield, which is based upon a different technology called Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).
FTIR offers considerable advantages over NDIR – for example, one single device can monitor over 200 substances up to a range of 2km and at concentrations of parts per million (ppm).
FTIR enables such monitoring by measuring the infrared spectrum of absorption or emission of a solid, liquid, or gas. A mathematical process called a Fourier transform is required to convert the raw data into the actual spectrum – hence the name Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).
Pretty amazing technology and exactly the sort we need to better understand the emissions profiles associated with wastewater treatment works.
The purpose of the visit to Laighhill Park was to identify exact locations and line of sight for the device in order to monitor as much of the site as possible.
Next steps are to finalise the work packs for the instal and get ready to kick start our first technology trial under the Hydro Nation Chair R&I programme – super exciting stuff.
This site visit is one of many to come and I hope you will join us on this journey.