As a company dedicated to water, Saur is at Pollutec 2018 from 27 November to 30 November showcasing its water services solutions: innovative and distinctive technologies developed specifically to respond to the major water challenges facing local authorities, industrial users and consumers.

The new challenges of a fast-changing water industry

Local authorities and industrial users face many water-related challenges. They operate in an environment shaped by the expectations of a society increasingly attentive to environmental issues, and consumers who are becoming increasingly demanding in terms of service quality. Water resource protection, water quality monitoring, micropollutant elimination, network performance, consumption control and energy generation are all challenges addressed by the Assises de l’Eau conference, with particular focus on the need to upgrade water pipeline networks and improve their efficiency.

An uncompromisingly different and innovative offering fully aligned with these new needs

Now refocused exclusively on its water core businesses, Saur has the investment capacity and expanded R&D facilities it needs to offer new services and innovative technologies. The first illustration of this dynamic commitment to innovation is its acquisition of ImaGeau, a startup company specialising in water resource management. Its EMI solution makes it possible to monitor and protect groundwater resources to ensure sufficient levels of water production (cf. point 3 more information). The 7 other water services solutions showcased by Saur at Pollutec respond directly to the new concerns of our customers, who are increasingly attentive to the need to manage data and environmental impacts, and equally demanding in terms of operational performance and the transparency required for the management, analysis and understanding of water service delivery.

The Operations Control Centre (OCC): the keystone of Saur innovation policy

Whether developed by the Group’s R&D teams or identified via partnerships with startups, educational institutions, business incubators or laboratories, these water services solutions are implemented in the 8 Saur OCCs. As concentrated centres of innovation, these OCCs bring together the best technologies in the market, and are continually adding new functions and services that enable our customers to extract maximum value from operating data, optimise their management of facilities and networks, reduce environmental impacts and prioritise capital expenditure. In recent months, and in addition to its R&D activities, Saur has analysed 150 startups and identified more than 150 innovative projects. Now in the experimentation phase, all these innovations are earmarked for integration into the OCC ecosystem as a complementary set of powerful solutions compatible with the development of smart cities.

Water services solutions

1 - Eliminating micropollutants

CHALLENGE: GUARANTEEING THE HEALTH SAFETY OF WATER SOLUTION: CARBOPLUS Pesticides, biocides, detergents, drug residues... Molecules resulting from all kinds of human activity are now detectable at trace levels in water resources. The concentrations may be low, but this multiplicity of molecules poses a potential risk to human health and the environment. The CarboPlus process patented by Saur eliminates micropollutants at low cost by adsorption using activated carbon. Neither concentrated nor converted to toxic by-products, the undesirable molecules are completely removed from the water with zero risk of uncontrolled re-release. Introduced at the polishing treatment stage, CarboPlus provides proven and effective elimination of plant protection products (pesticides, weed killers, etc.) and drug residues (anti-epileptics, hormones, tranquillisers, etc.).

2 - Eliminating limescale

CHALLENGE: GUARANTEEING THE HEALTHY CONVENIENCE OF WATER SOLUTION: CALCYCLE Hard water poses no health risk, but it does pose inconvenient problems for the maintenance and lifespan of pipelines and fire hydrants. For consumers, it results in premature wear to equipment, the need to buy costly cleaning products, increased energy usage, the risk of leaks and the potential to irritate sensitive skin. The Calcycle unit has been developed out of a technology partnership with the Dutch company Brabant Water, and is installed upstream of the existing treatment sequence to treat half of the incoming flow. This reduces its hardness from 35 to 15°F, after which the treated flow is blended with untreated water to achieve the required hardness value of 25°F.

3 - Gathering, monitoring and extracting value from groundwater resource data

CHALLENGE: LONG-TERM CONSERVATION OF WATER RESOURCES SOLUTION: EMI Developed by imaGeau (now a Saur subsidiary), the EMI solution forecasts the operational risks involved in the production of water from groundwater resources, including drought, shortages, overexploitation of boreholes, diffuse pollution and salt wedge intrusion. EMI offers a mapped overview of 4 key indicators: drought vulnerability, reduced efficiency, quality parameters often observed in groundwater resources, and energy consumption. The principle of EMI is to provide a highly detailed analysis of aggregated data, and interpret those data to guide local authority action.

4 - Managing water consumption using smart metres

CHALLENGE: CONTROLLING THE WATER CONSUMPTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND CONSUMERS SOLUTION: SMART METERING Saur has brought together its expertise in water services management with the Internet of Things to offer a comprehensive and secure remote meter reading solution like no other in the market. The smart meters used by Saur give local authorities more effective control of their consumption, dynamic monitoring of network performance and peaks in consumption, and detect leaks on the supply side of the consumer’s meter. As a result, subscribers have the assurance of receiving bills based on actual meter readings, rather than estimates, and to receive e-mail and text alerts to notify them of abnormal consumption levels.

5 - Leak detection

CHALLENGE: IMPROVING DRINKING WATER SUPPLY NETWORK EFFICIENCY SOLUTION: RÉZO+ For several years now, Saur has stood out distinctively in its market for its network management policy involving the combined use of technological innovations in permanent conjunction with the expertise available in its OCCs. The Rézo+ expert solution is based on 4 fundamental priorities: expert appraisal (installation of smart networks and analyses conducted by our own experts), instrumentation (measuring supply volumes and night-time flows, and listening to networks using technologies such as EAR and Smartball), management (interpretation of data gathered by OCCs to enable rapid decision-making) and long-term performance (prioritising investment in terms of maintenance and replacement projects). In addition to ground level searches, Saur is experimenting with aerial identification of leaks using satellite and drone imagery.

6 - Using predictive models to manage water supply systems

CHALLENGE: PRIORITISING LOCAL AUTHORITY INVESTMENT SOLUTION: MACHINE LEARNING Saur uses machine learning algorithms that draw on large volumes of historic data, evaluate themselves and configure themselves autonomously to minimise the average predictive error. For pipeline systems (materials, previous incidents, diameter, age, road traffic volumes, etc.), the model learns their history as the basis for associating certain combinations of conditions with the probability of major leaks within a given period of time. The results can then be used to prioritise pipeline replacement for improved asset management efficiency. These algorithms are also used to predict consumption and supply volumes, monitor water losses and optimise pumping operations.

7 - Using smart sensors to measure water quality

CHALLENGE: GUARANTEEING THE HEALTH QUALITY OF DRINKING WATER SUPPLIED SOLUTION:INTELLITECT In partnership with Intellitect Water, Saur is offering local authorities the opportunity to optimise their drinking water supply networks by fitting smart sensors. Continuous monitoring of hydraulic factors (flow rate, pressure, flow direction, etc.) in conjunction with analysis of overall water quality assessment parameters (conductivity, turbidity, residual chlorine, pH and temperature) offers improved control of network performance, water quality and variations in water quality throughout the network. Data cross-referencing ensures fast, early-stage detection of issues and enables their impacts to be limited through the use of predictive modelling.

8 - Generating energy by methanation

CHALLENGE: CREATING VALUE FROM WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT RESIDUAL SLUDGE SOLUTION: METHANATION Saur has developed a solution for generating methane from the sludge produced by larger wastewater treatment plants and from a mixture of organic waste and sludge from smaller treatment plants (the co-digestion process). Saur is committed to exploiting the potential for recovering organic waste, and has designed a low-cost digester solution. With its Codilog solution, Saur can use the details of the sludge/organic waste mix as the basis for estimating methane production potential (and therefore the quantity of energy generated), the N/P/K composition of sludge to be removed and that which can be fed back into the start of the process. After purification to remove its CO2 content, the biogas produced is injected into the domestic natural gas supply system.