MINUTES of the 67th Forum meeting of 16th October 2019
Please note that for older reports some links will be to sites that are no longer active.
| Steve Bungay (SB) | Helix ECL / FWR Wastewater Co-ordinator (Secretary)& |
| Alice Horton (AH) | National Oceanography Centre (NOC) |
| Gordon Jones (GJ) | FWR |
| Stephen Palmer (SP) | Stantec |
| Peter Vale (PV) | Severn Trent Water |
The meeting started with brief roundtable introductions as everybody knows each other. SB let the forum know that he would be standing down from the role of secretary. He is starting a part-time PhD at Cranfield University and is streamlining his time commitments.
Although it couldn’t be announced at the meeting, it is now confirmed that Oliver Grievson will be taking over from SB as secretary.
Matters arising and items not on the agenda
2.1 Technical Presentations / Patent ApplicationsSB informed the Forum that the FWR had been contacted by the Senior Patent Examiner at the UK IPO regarding a historical technical presentation. Pratik Desai had previously given a presentation on “Hot Microbubble Injection in Thin Liquid Layers for Ammonia - Water Separations”. Subsequent to this presentation, Pratik had made a Patent Application no.170614 regarding the technology. Unfortunately, because details of the technology were already in the public domain, his application was ineligible and turned down. Pratik had given a presentation at an Aqua Enviro conference before he presented it to the Forum. So, although, the Forum did not contribute to the ineligibility of the technology, it was a timely reminder that we may have to check with future presenters whether-or-not their presentation could impact on any future patent applications.
2.2 ROCKsThere have been two new ROCKs published:
ROCKs under consideration
Circular Economy
SP has provided a proposal for a ROCK on the Circular Economy for Water.
Subsequent to the meeting, this ROCK has been approved for publication.
AMR
Andrew Singer, CEH had been identified as an alternative author, and he had agreed to write a lead article for the Newsletter.
Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment
Ana Soares to produce a proposal for a ROCK on Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment.
Rocks for consideration
The lead article in the February Newsletter was by Dr Louise Lavictoire, titled “Livers of our rivers – population recovery of the endangered freshwater”, and Wastewater Matters had an article on “Biodegradable Packaging – an environmental alternative to plastic?”, which highlighted the current confusion regarding biodegradable plastics, and in their current form biodegradable packaging is not a sustainable alternative to plastic.
2.4 WebsiteThe presentations from Ben Hazard, Trant Engineering “C-ION Advanced Oxidation Process”, and Lewis O’Brien, and Ulrich Knoerle, Eliquo Hydrok and Eliquo Stultz “EloVac/EloPhos” have been uploaded onto the website.
2.5 Social MediaTwitter
The forum twitter account @F4WaterResearch (Link top right of Wastewater Banner) is slowly getting more followers. From the previous meeting the number of followers has increased from 328 to 351 (361 at the time of writing) followers.
Admin rights of the Twitter account have now been passed over to Oliver Grievson.
LinkedInThe roundtable discussions centred mainly around microplastics, the work being undertaken at Severn Trent’s Innovation Hub at Spernal STW, and the development of the FWR’s Wikipedia page.
MicroplasticsPossible site visit to Severn Trent’s new innovation test centre at Spernal STW once the site is operational.
| Spring | Professor Sonia Heaven – University of Southampton (confirmed) Professor Sir Brian Hoskins – Imperial College (invited) |
| Ana Soares | Cranfield University – Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment, Nutrient Recovery Possible speaker from Arcadia concerning emerging contaminants ~ Jonathan Miles, Ian Ross, Jake Hurst |
| 23rd | January | Utility Week Water Customer Conference |
| 24th | January | Managing Plastic Waste Forum (Westminster Insight) |
| 28th | January | WWT Wastewater Conference & Exhibition 2020 |
| 29th | January | Instrumentation & Process Control in the Water Industry (SWIG) |
| 4th | March | Successfully using Instrumentation in Challenging Wastewater Environments (SWIG) |
| 11th | March | WWT Smart Water 2020 Conference |
| 14th | July | The Future if Sewer Network Management (Aqua Enviro) |
| 14th – 15th | July | European Wastewater Management Conference (Aqua Enviro) |
Attendance to the meetings has a minimum attendance of six, an average attendance of eight, with a maximum attendance of twenty-four, including CIWEM.