ENERWATER

7726c540-aa0d-4cb0-8870-9ce37f8fd85f

Closed

EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC

£1,081,370

Jan. 31, 2015

Oct. 31, 2018

This project involves the research and development of novel systems to recover and re-distribute energy in food processing
and manufacturing premises, especially where there are demands for refrigeration and heating on-site and localised. The
project also aims to optimise the production of heated water as a process requirement for heating, cleaning or sterilisation,
by re-cycling both the waste heat and treating the waste water stream, so that it may be recoverable and re-cycleable.
The user industry attraction will be local energy recovery for useful purposes, including water supply streams. Treatment of
water itself for recycling is an additional attraction reducing external energy, resource treatments and requirements. The
proposed developments may be applied within an industrial complex that can provide source and "sink" needs, or interbusiness
or community to other industrial or domestic premises.
This approach therefore minimises the industrial consumption of energy and diverts it to other localised energy users,
which could be a range of uses, such as aligned similar site or other local heat consuming processes or domestic or office
localised heating needs.

Potential Impact:
The proposal addresses all the requirements of the Research Council impact strategy with a prime focus on the first:- Fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom
- Industrial food processing is a major industry throughout the world. Increasing energy resource costs is having a negative
impact on the sustainability of the sector. The technological systems proposed will both enhance the economic efficiency of
the food processign sector and deliver localised energy and water inputs to local community users, and has the prospect of
implementation both in the UK, the EU and globally.
As the UK commercial partners will have first access to the technology, and since dissemination will be carried out initially
in the UK, the project will enhance the UK's economic competitiveness.
- Increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy.
This will be affected indirectly, via the project's impact on GHG reductions and their related industrial targets. Energy
savings made will directly impact the environmental footprint of the dairy products on a throughput comparison basis.
- Enhancing quality of life, health and creative output.
The project may have indirect benefits when cost-efficient models for localised energy and water are implemented, offering
the opportunity for cost-attractive heating inputs for domestic consumers for example. There will be a reduced
environmental footprint from more efficient use of energy in energy-intensive industrial processing.
The make up of the consortium is designed to pull the appropriate skill base together to meet the technical challenges, but
also to facilitate end user uptake, by including processing partners, to assist in dissemination/impact both economic and
societal. The commercial partners include complementary SME engineered product manufacturers (WHR Ltd and Atlantic
Water Ltd, as well as demand side representatives (Muller-Wiseman Ltd and Mackies of Scotland Ltd. The project outputs
include a pilot demonstrations of an infrastructure expoiting the developed equipment hardware and support services. This
should lead to changed business practices where exploitation can benefit efficiencies in the processing sectors.