An innovative and cost-effective piece of kit called Fuzzy Filter is helping Anglian Water manage its water recycling operation more efficiently. Developed by German manufacturer Schreiber Water, Fuzzy Filter uses a compressible bed of pink fuzzy sponge balls to sieve out solids from foul water before it is returned to a watercourse.

Here Nick Sexton, Anglian Water’s Innovation Shop Window Project Manager, explains how this and other innovations are being used to best effect at Anglian Water.

We’re currently using the Fuzzy Filter at our Friskney Water Recycling Centre, replacing the previous filter, which was labour intensive to clean.

Our Friskney Water Recycling team found, over time, we were spending more and more time manually cleaning the previous filter. So when the equipment was due for renewal, we looked for a more efficient solution.

By installing a Fuzzy Filter, which is a much better tool for the job, it now automatically backwashes and cleans itself. It doesn’t need as much maintenance, meaning we’ve got lots more time back to do more productive planned work. Plus, it’s much more effective and produces an even higher quality of treated effluent to be released into the nearby river.

Bringing in new products and innovations is an approach the whole business embraces. It’s important we keep using innovative products like this one to stay at the leading edge of our industry, and to drive efficiencies that make our business better and more cost effective for customers.”

Innovation is key to the future and central to everything we do at Anglian Water. Fuzzy Filters are just one example of where we’ve successfully met operational challenges with a collaborative approach.

Our Innovation Shop Window project, based in Newmarket, Suffolk, is at the epicentre of this. We’ve created a microcosm of what a future water company could look like, today, and a showcase for both innovative technology but also collaboration with the best and brightest minds in the industry.

Newmarket is a discreet catchment which makes it the perfect place to run a real-world test facility. For suppliers it’s a test bed to trial products, services and initiatives, and develop viable commercial applications. For Anglian Water, we can drive innovation through collaboration across our business, supply chain and the entire man-made water cycle. It is also an opportunity to engage in new ways with our customers and provide them with the opportunity to influence the services we provide.

Crucially, by concentrating innovation in one physical place, we are unlocking synergies between new technologies and different ways of working more quickly than ever. This accelerates our learning and allows us to improve customer service, environmental stewardship and the efficiency of our business at a much faster pace.

Anglian Water is seeking to achieve a range of goals through the initiative, such as reducing customer water consumption and chemical free water treatment. A number of water recycling technologies already being deployed include:

• Nereda: A chemical free Phosphorous removal process from Royal Haskoning which uses aerobic granular sludge technology, which is being trialled to deliver higher quality effluent and energy savings simultaneously.

• Shepherd: While not suitable at all treatment works this is helping Anglian monitor oxygen demand on aeration lanes and providing valuable intelligence on aeration lane “health” and oxygen demand to optimise aeration and make energy savings.

• Mobile SLG: A method of dewatering sludge on smaller sites to reduce the need for tankering via road.

These are just a snapshot of the programme we are running in Newmarket. There are many other exciting projects on the horizon, including looking at anaerobic treatment, algae, and processes to recover nutrients like Nitrogen and Phosphorous.

Not every technology we trial will make the cut, but we are learning valuable insights at every step. Ultimately this is about being the most efficient business we can be, and using that efficiency to deliver the best service for our customers and stakeholders.