Details of Grant

EPSRC Reference:

EP/P018513/1

Title:

Water - Energy - Nutrient Nexus in the Cities of the Future

Principal Investigator:

Other Investigators:

Promentilla, Professor M	Gilbert, Professor N	Eusebio, Dr R
Beltran, Dr A	Belo, Dr LP	Clarke, Professor ML
RAZON, Professor L F L	ORBECIDO, Dr A

Researcher Co-Investigators:

Project Partners:

Maynilad Water Services Inc.

Department:

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Organisation:

University of Surrey

Scheme:

Newton Fund

Starts:

15 May 2017

Ends:

14 May 2019

Value (£):

41,621

EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:

Bioprocess Engineering	Waste Management
Waste Minimisation

EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:

Water

Related Grants:

Panel History:

Panel Date	Panel Name	Outcome
31 Jul 2016	RCUK Newton-SEA Small Scale Research Call 2016	Announced

Summary on Grant Application Form

With the rapid urbanization and growing population, some of the main issues in sustainable management of wastewater in cities include the protection of water resources, high energy demand in the operation of wastewater treatment facilities and direct disposal of treated effluent/by-products resulting in loss of opportunity to recover nutrients. Urban water and wastewater systems in particular are energy intensive starting from water abstraction to treatment and disposal. In large cities the management of wastewater is becoming quite important due to implications on the productivity of the aquatic environment, including critical water resources, and people's quality of life specially those who are disadvantaged in many countries.

The cities of the future needs to be evolved with integrated planning of wastewater, energy and resource management. Recovery of resources from wastewater would not only supply nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in the form of renewable fertilizer, but also it will reduce the energy demands in the production of fertilizers. Moreover, clean water can be produced which will further reduce pumping energy requirement for water supply in most cases. In particular, the use of recycled phosphorus in urban farming and agriculture in the cities of future would ensure the booming future populations can survive. In view of the booming population and associated nutritional requirements of future generations food production must increase significantly.

This project (NexCities) will lay the groundwork for future research and knowledge application on systematic understanding of complex interrelations within a newly proposed concept of Water - Energy - Nutrient nexus, as a critical subset of broader Energy-Food-Water-Environment Nexus. A participatory stakeholder model based on fuzzy cognitive maps will be adopted to understand broader implication of Water - Energy - Nutrient nexus. This project aims beyond theoretical projections related to wastewater treatment and nutrient recycling, and particularly targets generation of new data by conducting systematic experimental investigation on quantities of nutrient and energy resources and their flows in Metro Manila wastewater.

Key Findings

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Potential use in non-academic contexts

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Impacts

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Summary
Date Materialised

Sectors submitted by the Researcher

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Project URL:

Further Information:

Organisation Website:

http://www.surrey.ac.uk