HRH The Duke of Kent included a visit to two research areas with the Division of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Monday 26 March 2012
HRH the Duke of Kent included a visit to two research areas with the Division of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering on a recent tour of the University.
Firstly where he met with Professor Adel Sharif, a water technology pioneer who spoke about the reasons why Surrey was recently awarded the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize and that was followed by a practical demonstration where he met with Dr's Mike Mulheron and David Jesson who showcased Surrey’s work in the field of Construction Materials and Mechanical Testing shown below:
Water research at Surrey ranges from treatment, sanitation and emergency response to infrastructure network assessment. Two facets of the research were highlighted.
Manipulated Osmosis Desalination (MOD): By using forward and reverse osmosis to remove salt from sea water, this groundbreaking process requires considerably less energy and chemical usage compared to conventional desalination. Moreover, when compared to competing technologies, it produced the cleanest drinking water available and was given the highest mark in the Desalination Reliability Index in an independent study by the Global Water Intelligence. Spearheaded by a university spin out company, the technology has been successfully commercialized by Modern Water plc with three MOD plants currently operational in the Middle East. It has the potential to be applied to new and retrofitted to existing treatment plants.
Assessment of water distribution networks: In metropolitan London alone, the network comprises some 20,000 km of distribution mains (3-6” diameter) and 3,000 km of trunk mains (12-42” diameter). Much of this network is comprised of cast iron pipes the majority of which have been in service for 100-150 years. Background leakage (at joints and corrosion-induced holes) and pipe bursts are costly both from an environmental perspective and a safety point of view. This complex asset management problem is being addressed through an industry-funded programme of inter-disciplinary research, including material and structural characterisation tests, the development of predictive condition models, and network risk assessment.
