Overview

The Water Industry is facing a variety of different challenges from several different directions. It requires companies to provide an increasingly better service to customers for a lower price whilst the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) are looking to ensure that water companies lead the way in water quality compliance. Environmental factors mean that there are emerging contaminants that need to be dealt with whilst minimising our own environmental impacts, while weather events mean that we need to be much more flexible as to how we move water around our area.

Speaker

Dr Richard Lake, Affinity Water

A Chartered Chemical Engineer with over 20 years of experience working within the Water Industry, Richard Lake graduated from the University of Surrey with a Masters in Chemical Engineering before completing his Ph.D focusing on the ‘Identification of the Fouling Mechanism during the Crossflow Filtration of a Model Fermentation Broth’. He has since spent his career at Affinity Water within the Production Team as a Business Lead and as the Process Engineering Science Manager focusing on water treatment, R&D, process specifications and standards whilst acting as a link between Production and Water Quality.

Topics for discussion

Dr Richard Lake will look at a number of projects that are taking place to meet these multiple demands. 

• How do we remove emerging micro-pollutants from the water?
• Can we pump water more efficiently?
• Do we need to wait 24 hours for a micro-biological laboratory sample?
• Are there better ways of treating and disinfecting water?
• What is the best form of sludge that means we control our own impact on the environment?