In 2017 the Nereus project was formed by partners from across Europe including water companies, universities and housing co-operatives. Climate change and an increasing population, means we could be a facing a water shortfall of 50% by 2050 if we don’t address our water resources and usage.
Recognising the valuable role wastewater can play to tackle water scarcity, the project has investigated how we can the recovery of nutrients, energy and water from wastewater.
What we did
Southern Water joined the partnership with the team here in Bluewave team helping to lead the project.
Water recycling essentially speeds up the natural process of water treatment. Instead of returning treated water to the environment, we’re exploring ways to recycle it. This means we can keep it in our network reducing the amount we need to take from the environment.
So we set out to look at how we could recover nutrients from wastewater and increase our understanding of water recycling through innovative techniques.
We worked with the University of Brighton and experts in water recycling, Brown & Caldwell, to test different treatment technologies, giving valuable support to the water recycling pilot schemes we’re running across our own sites at Peel Common and Budds Farm in Hampshire.
After almost four years of work, we presented our findings to the project in November, and we couldn’t be prouder.
What’s next?
We’re taking what we’ve learned about water recycling from our time on the Nereus project and looking to expand it to three more of our sites on the next step towards a more resilient water future.
Get in touch!
If you’d like to learn more about our work with Nereus, collaborate with us on a project or share an idea for a new product or process, please drop us an email: [email protected]