IWA World Congress 2018: Bronze award for energy recovery project by Waternet Amsterdam
The project by Amsterdam water utility Waternet to make thermal energy available from their drinking water network, has been awarded a Bronze award at the World Water Congress & Exhibition of the International Water Association (IWA) in Tokyo, Japan.
The award, in the category 'Performance Improvement and Operational Solutions’ was handed out to Peter van der Hoek, head of the Strategic Centre of Waternet, on 17 September.
The overall IWA Grand Innovation Award went to the team of the Cranfield University for the development of the nano membrane toilet that uses no external water or energy.
Award winners in the category improved performances with Peter van der Hoek (right) of Waternet. source: IWA
Cold and heat recovery
In Amsterdam, drinking water is produced from surface water, resulting in high drinking water temperatures in summer and low drinking water temperatures in winter.
This makes it possible to apply both cold and heat recovery.
Waternet started a joint project with blood bank Sanquin that needs lots of cooling for its process to make plasma from blood.
In the winter the cold energy from the nearby drinking water pipeline can be used directly or it can be stored in winter time in an underground Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) to be used in the summer to cool Sanquin’s pharmaceutical processes.
Lifting of the underground heat exchange unit for the awarded Waternet-Sanquin project in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Other winners
The Gold Award in this category for performance improvements went to Anglian Water for their Shop Window initative to create a real environment in and around the town Newmarket to push the company’s business goals around energy, carbon, chemicals and catchment management.
The overall winner of the IWA Grand Innovation Award was the Cranfield University for its work on the Nano Membrane Toilet.
This toilet has been developed as part of the 'Rethinking the toilet' programme by the Bill Gates Foundation.
It is designed for single-household use (equivalent to 10 people) and accepts urine and faeces as a mixture. The flush uses a unique rotating mechanism without using any water whilst simultaneously blocking odour and the user’s view of the waste.
Loosely bound water (mostly from urine) is separated using low glass transition temperature hollow-fibre membranes.
See list of all 18 winners on the website of IWA Network.
Read also on this website
● IWA Brisbane 2016: Arcadis and KWR agree on development new groundwater resource concepts, 13 October 2016
● IWA Lisbon 2014: Practitioners address resource recovery at world water congress, 16 September 2014
● PWN Technologies wins IWA Project Innovation Award 2012 with ceramic membranes and ion exchange, 19 April 2012
● Expertise: Water technology
More information
IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2018
www.worldwatercongress.org
Waternet
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
+31 88 939 40 00
www.waternet.nl
Video presentation of the energy recovery from drinking water by Amsterdam water utility Waternet.