Innovation is critical to a sustainable future Our success in sustainability depends heavily on innovation, and we’ve recognised the need for a more wide-ranging, inclusive approach. We’ve adopted the ‘open’ innovation model, involving suppliers and industry partners, rather than relying just on our own R&D – and this has supported a number of recent developments. The framework helps us work towards these objectives in three ways: Identifying opportunities and prioritising them by value and the availability of the technology and skills needed to realise them. Proving each initiative’s desirability, financial viability (both costs and benefits) and technical feasibility. Developing multi-sector partnerships to support our innovation ambitions through collaboration, investment and influencing. Resource Recovery and Innovation Centre (‘R2IC’) The R2IC is our testbed for demonstrating the technology we need to move to a much more circular approach for running our treatment plant. It allows us to investigate things like low-energy treatment processes for recovering materials from waste water. Importantly, it’s open to collaboration with technology providers, academics and other partners, widening its scope and making the most of the expertise available to our industry. Innovations currently in development here include: membrane-aerated biofilm reactors which provide a cost-effective way of significantly reducing the power needed to treat waste water; the anaerobic membrane bioreactor , the largest trial in Europe of a waste treatment process for reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption, and providing a purer ammonia stream to support recovery of resources; chemical-free phosphorus removal to build confidence in our ability to achieve the low phosphorus permits; hydrogen from waste , where we are developing a prototype electrolyser that will generate hydrogen from ammonia recovered from sewage treatment; and sludge to fertiliser technology that converts sludge, ammonia from our effluent stream, waste heat and CO2 from our biogas engines, into high-grade fertiliser. We are building the pilot plant at the R2IC annexe at Minworth. Ofwat Innovation Fund In its latest round of funding, Ofwat has reserved £200 million to promote collaborative innovation across the water sector. Bids are invited for large and small projects, and all intellectual property, data and insights developed as a result of a successful bid must be made freely available to all water companies for the benefit of all customers. Our strategy is to produce targeted bids in partnership with other organisations, developing our capability to learn from others. This will ensure we maximise the value we derive from the fund. In April 2021, we were awarded £420,000 funding for two ground-breaking projects in Ofwat’s first Innovation in Water Challenge: Fibre leak detection is an emerging technique that uses a laser to detect noise at intervals along a fibre inside or alongside a water main or waste-water network. As there’s already a significant fibre telecoms network, we could use this to lower the cost of detecting leaks. Hafren Dyfrdwy will be working with Dw^r Cymru (Welsh Water), Costain and Focus Sensors to investigate the possibilities. We’ll be working with the Consumer Council for Water, South East Water and Thames Water on using behavioural and data science to support customers in vulnerable circumstances. This will include improving contact with hard-to-reach customers and communities during both planned and unplanned events, including help to manage bills and understanding which forms of communication customers prefer. Future bids will focus on water-sector challenge where we need collaboration, such as reducing process emissions, removing microplastics and pharmaceuticals from waste, chemical-free treatment and managing water resources. The Severn Trent Challenge Cup In our annual competition, we invite everyone in the organisation to offer ideas on how to improve our business. This year’s winner, from 112 entries, was the Bio-Trap Bucket, designed to filter out the droppings that land in sheep’s drinking water during lambing time. Without this innovation, farmers empty all the waste into surface-water drains. So, as well as reducing the need for waste-water treatment, the bucket, developed by one of our employees, Marion Perrett-Pearson, who also has a farm, helps farmers understand how they can contribute to water quality. It was a huge hit with the farmers who trialled the innovation, and has the potential for filtering thousands of cubic metres of contaminated water before it enters our network or rivers. Our new innovation framework As an organisation focused on being at the forefront of technology and best practice, our innovation framework creates an effective approach to prioritising projects based upon business outcomes, balances work across different time horizons, and helps us to target initiatives with our wider ecosystem. We have successfully integrated the service, digital, data, physical and biological innovation skills and capabilities from across the business, and redesigned our innovation operating model with a focus on achieving tangible value more effectively and efficiently. The framework allows us to use better data and new technology that is close to being ready for deployment, while targeting research into new technologies that, if proven, will boost resilience and reduce process emissions in the future. It also allows us to work with the wider organisation to identify the key opportunities for recovering resources and energy across our value chain, aiding the transition to a circular economy. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 £ funding awarded for two ground-breaking projects in Ofwat’s first Innovation in Water Challenge Building a better business Building an innovative business Submit your innovation idea for us to review World Water Innovation Fund World Water Innovation Fund Set up recently to help us work with partners globally, solving problems and exchanging ideas and opportunities, the fund has developed a specific focus. We’re now using it in a targeted way to work towards a circular economy for the water industry. With 12 members in locations such as the UK, Singapore, Australia, Europe and the US, the aim is to collaborate on a range of circular economy and carbon-offsetting projects: The extraction of cellulose from toilet paper for use in processing into biofuel. The capture of heat from waste water from sewers and treatment works for heating domestic and commercial properties. Fertiliser from sludge, as above. Ammonia and hydrogen recovery from waste water and sludge. Pyrolysis to decompose waste screenings can recover two-thirds of the energy in sludge. Anaerobic digestion of sludge can recover the remaining one-third of the energy in sludge.