Everyday in England and Wales around 3,000,000,000 litres of water are wasted through leaking pipes. This is a vast waste of a natural resource and as demand could be 40% greater than supply by 2030 then a solution is urgently needed.

We have developed and tested (lab scale) technology that can repair water pipeline leaks without digging up the pipe to repair it. We are working with Yorkshire Water to develop this technology in order to signi?cantly reduce over 2 billion litres of water that leaks out of pipes every day in the UK.

Water companies have many options for ?nding leaks on their mains, however there are limited methods for repair. Current approaches require excavation to expose the water main, regardless of the size of the leak, and then either installation of a clamp or cutting out and ?tting a new pipe.

This technology will repair any type of pipe and most types of leak, we don't even need to know where the leak is. Its use in the industry will have the following bene?ts:

* Save water, prevent wastage, prevent water scarcity
* Solve the industry challenge of halving leakage by 2050
* Reduce power required to pump water, reducing carbon emissions
* Reduce disruption (road works etc)
* Reduce number of people required to ?x leaks
* Allow social distancing by reducing human to human interaction during repairs
* Reduce domestic water bills
* Export potential is signi?cant for regions of water scarcity

The outcome of successfully delivering this project will result in a product that will enable the following to be achieved by its deployment:

* Reduce resource (water) wastage
* Reduce water scarcity
* Reduce energy demand
* Open up a signi?cant export market for reducing water leakage in countries with water scarcity issues, which in turn signi?cantly reduced energy usage (desalination and reverse osmosis plant)
* Take people out water poverty by reducing household bills and allow water companies to divert expenditure on leaks to protecting their most vulnerable customers