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The evolution in management of corrosion, odour and safety in sewer networks

From improving communication efficiency to tackling operational, safety and environmental challenges

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Managing ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) concerns continues to become more complex for water utilities. Aging infrastructure, reduced operating budgets and increasingly stringent environmental policy make it more difficult each year to meet, let alone improve safety, environmental and operational benchmarks.

Environmental management is traditionally considered a cost to doing business. Although many organisations are driven to improve environmental performance, it can be difficult to justify investment for initiatives that have only environmental benefits.

The concept of delivering both environmental and operational benefits is not new. Eco-efficiency, cleaner production and industrial symbiosis have been around for decades as ideas. The key proposition behind these concepts is that you can have your cake and eat it too. It is possible, with the right idea, to deliver both operational and environmental improvement. Yet, these initiatives often fail to take hold.

Published in SWM Bimonthly 13 - June 2022
SWM Bimonthly 13

The disconnect between environmental and operational benefit

It is possible to deliver both operational and environmental improvement, yet these initiatives often fail to take hold

The groups driving environmental improvement and those making operational and strategic decisions for the business tend to be very different. Environmental management has its basis in fundamental science or engineering, with dedicated subject matter experts leading the understanding of the issue. Measuring, assessing, and describing the significance of any particular issue is complicated. We are usually trying to represent an environmental system accurately enough to understand whether an activity is causing a problem, or importantly, whether it will cause a problem in the future. Modelling of these systems, whether it be some aspect of the water cycle, air quality, noise, groundwater is critical, but each of these disciplines requires its own specialist expertise. Whether that expertise is internal or external to the organisation, it is fundamentally different to the operational and strategic functions within an organisation that decide how an operation should run.

Communication is the key to driving business-wide value – the start of Envirosuite’s SeweX journey

I believe that one of the critical factors that determine whether an organisation can deliver both environmental and operational performance is communication. Historically, the burden has fallen upon the shoulders of key decision-makers or environmental decision-makers who can sell a concept internally.

Today, environmental technology presents an incredible opportunity to bridge the gap between environmental and operational drivers in a business.

Today, environmental technology presents an opportunity to bridge the gap between environmental and operational drivers in a business

When Envirosuite first entered into an agreement with Uniquest (the commercialisation company of The University of Queensland) to commercialise the SeweX modelling product in late 2019, we saw enormous potential in making sewer modelling more accessible to water utilities by digitalising and simplifying this process.

Based on our experience developing other environmental technologies, we identified two objectives during the commercialisation process:

  • First, develop modelled outputs that decision-makers can understand quickly and easily.
  • And secondly, automatically assess, translate and distribute information to the people making operational decisions.

The original focus of commercialisation was related to odour and corrosion issues. Historically, the model had been applied by academics (the same academics who developed the model) to identify hotspots in sewer networks and assess the costs and benefits of potential control technologies. Although valuable, the information took many months to process - and often, the transient issues that were the subject of the investigation had changed or passed. The data had to be interpreted by the people running the model and recorded in a report in a similar way to how most environmental modelling information is presented.

What if we could process this information faster and make it understood by non-subject matter experts across the business? It could deliver enormous value across the organisation. For example:

  • Operational staff could, within hours, understand the root cause of a potential odour issue and take action.
  • Tactical planning units could quickly assess options for chemical dosing in response to unexpected odour issues.
  • Potential corrosion issues could be identified before they occur, saving millions of dollars of costly repair work and enormous disruption when assets fail.

These ideas were tested during early consultation with potential customers when fundamental product design decisions were made. The key objectives of the commercialisation process were validated and engaging with water utilities during the design process helped enormously in working out the detail of exactly how this should be done.

  • SeweX predicts methane generation across the entire network and can deliver valuable understanding of where methane related risks might be

Helping water utilities and operators tackle safety and climate change challenges

When we commercialised SeweX, it was clear that the technology delivered valuable additional insights by using information that is already routinely collected by water utilities. This was an important factor in developing automatic upload of hydraulic modelling and laboratory analysis of water quality information.

In 2021, when we engaged with our first commercial customers, Sewex’s applicability to managing safety and climate change objectives was also tested.

We saw enormous potential in making sewer modelling more accessible to water utilities by digitalising and simplifying this process

Methane, a key output of SeweX, fills in an important gap in the knowledge of sewer network operators. Safety management related to methane generation is currently focussed on personal monitoring at the location where work is done. SeweX is unique in that it predicts methane generation across the entire network and can deliver a valuable understanding of where methane related risks might be occurring. Along similar lines, this can also help utilities understand greenhouse gas emissions in sewer networks - a historically underappreciated part of the water industry’s emissions inventory.

This early engagement also led to innovations in how different risks related to the sewer network are evaluated and compared, and outputs that could be more easily communicated and used within a typical risk management framework.

Allowing utilities to operate more efficiently and make capital expenditure decisions with certainty and confidence

The focus on corrosion, odour and safety related to methane and sulphide generation is still very much based on costly manual measurement

Although sewer overflows and energy optimisation are receiving some attention from water utilities, the focus on corrosion, odour and safety related to methane and sulphide generation is still traditionally very much based on costly manual measurement approaches. Subsequently, only a small proportion of the network is assessed each year. Furthermore, decisions on major capital budgets are still based on many assumptions and are taken with a high level of uncertainty. Therefore, delivering more certainty into this process can only help utilities drive efficiencies in operations and capital planning.

SeweX started as a way to fundamentally improve the understanding of corrosion, odour and safety in sewer networks. Since then, it has proven to play an important role in helping utilities approach their ESG objectives. Envirosuite’s journey is underway and will continue to evolve as we collaborate with water utilities and operators around the world.

If you’d like to learn about our products and collaborations to date, go to our website or contact Chaim Kolominskas, Manager of EVS Water.