Launch of the water reuse network

BNC is pleased to announce the launch of a new computational tool for assessing the economic viability of “greywater” reuse networks for use by local government, town and city planners, and private developers.  As part of BNC’s Smart Water  focus, BNC is launching a consultancy service to make this important tool commercially available.

The water reuse network decision support system (WReN system) is a framework implemented within an optimization computational tool to determine the viability of proposed non-portable greywater reuse networks from both socio-institutional and technical perspectives.  Water recycling and reuse has been proposed as a means of combatting global issues of water scarcity, under increasing population pressure and climate change.  Despite the perceived benefits of water resuse there are numerous examples of failed projects, particularly due to negative public attitudes towards proposals and the disregarding or misunderstanding of social and institutional issues within the engineering community.  In collaboration with Arup, a global leader in innovative environmental, water and sustainable engineering and construction, BNC developed the tool to quantitatively assess the socio-institutional viability of a reuse proposal, a least-cost network optimisation algorithm to evaluate technical and economic specifications, and risk assessment methodology.  The project was funded by the Technology Strategy Board.  As part of the project, the WReN system was tested on a hypothetical proposal to install a non-portable greywater reuse network for Bloomsbury area of central London.  This tool incorporates state-of-the-art social scientific research methodology for rapid appraisal of social issues, water treatment and conveyance information, as well as topological and geographic information system data into a network optimisation algorithm that informs the conceptual design of a non-potable reuse system.

On a commercial scale, the severly water-stressed nation of Japan provides large subsidies to greywater recycling projects; while on a smaller scale, certain policies targeted at greywater reuse in domestic households have been implemented in Australia and the US.  Conversely, no current measures are yet in place to incentivise greywater reuse in the UK, despite various parts of the country having been projected to face (or already facing) severe water shortages.  The projected rise in the retail price of potable water in parts of the UK, when coupled with possible provision of subsidies for greywater reuse projects, could lead to greater consumer acceptance of greywater reuse and more extensive development of greywater reuse networks.  Water companies in the UK currently charge for both the supply of potable water and sewerage.  The price of portable water in the UK is around 94 p/m³  delivered and 119 p/m³ for sewage removal (OFWAT, 2013).  With the new water policy initiative outlined by the UK Government last year (DEFRA, 2013), all business, charity and public sector customers in England will be able to switch their water and sewerage suppliers.  This creates an opportunity for a water re-use network company to effectively undercut water companies by charging a low sewerage cost for greywater and a low rate for supplying treated greywater for non-potable purposes.

BNC offers consultancy services to organisations/cities interested in analysing the cost/benefit of a municipal to sub-municipal dual reticulation greywater  network as well as the development of a sustainable and optimized design of the greywater network.