Northumbrian Water (NW) is the first water company in the UK to trial an innovative pipe cleaning technology – Comprex Impulse Cleaning.
To explore the potential of this technology in NW and in the wider UK water industry, NW staff visited Comprex in Germany to see the innovative technology in action. Impressed by what they saw, they recommended it was trialled to explore the benefits further.
Working in partnership with one of their Ecosystem partners IES (Integral Energy Solutions) and developed by clean pipe experts, Comprex, NW network teams recently trialled the new technology to clean a 12-inch cast iron main at Honey Hill Water Treatment Works (WTW) which supplies areas of North West Durham.
Traditionally, cleaning a 12-inch cast iron main like the one at Honey Hill WTW would require ice pigging, air scouring and flushing – all of which take weeks in planning and up to 15 days to complete.
With Comprex Impulse Cleaning, the entire process is significantly faster and more efficient. It uses less water and energy and the teams have reported much better results.
This patented, computer-controlled method uses pulses of air to push small amounts of water at high speed, dislodging sediment, manganese, and other deposits inside the mains. It uses only 10–20% of the water volume of traditional flushing methods, with waste volumes reduced by over 80%.
Northumbrian Water’s Head of Networks, Jim Howey commented:
“The trial at Honey Hill is just the beginning, we’re excited to roll this ground-breaking technology across our water network in the coming months.
“This is a game changer in mains cleaning for us and we’ve only just scratched the surface. Working with the guys from Germany, IES and NW colleagues worked as one team to manage the water network and take regular sampling throughout the cleaning exercise and cleaned a staggering 2km in around three hours!
“Our teams are always looking for ways to improve our processes. Impulse Cleaning represents a major step forward in maintaining water quality. We believe this approach will significantly improve and maintain our high water quality standards, resilience of our network and ultimately deliver a first class service for our customers.”
