IEC
From water desalination to
atmospheric harvesting and floating solar panels, the IEC provides the
standards which help water preservation and extraction techniques meet the
targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.
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With one thousand
children under the age of five dying each day in Africa because
of the lack of safe water and with populations living in urban areas facing
water shortages, the risk of a
global water crisis is imminent. While the poorest nations bear
the brunt of the suffering, the gap between global water supply and demand is
projected to reach 40% by 2030 if current practices continue, warned the World Economic
Forum, which called water scarcity one of the greatest challenges of
our time.
The UN has urged members to speed up
implementation of the UN-Water
SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework warning that “business
as usual will not achieve that goal”. The SDG 6 framework states
that water-related challenges require the rapid development and deployment of
innovative and transformative ideas. These approaches include water extraction
and preservation techniques and the extensive use of IT and AI to help
communities optimize water resources and minimize the environmental impact of
water use.
Seawater
desalination plants switch to renewables
Desalination is an established
technique that pumps water at high pressure through membranes to remove salt
and other chemicals from the sea or brackish river water but is increasingly
controversial, mostly for environmental reasons. There are environmental concerns
about the impact of desalination on ocean life when sea water is sucked into
the process and there are also worries about the hypersaline brine discharged
at the end. Equally concerning for the health of the planet is that the reverse
osmosis process used in most industrial desalination efforts is energy
intensive.
However, green energy is increasingly
powering such systems. In California, a state prone to drought, the Doheny Ocean
Desalination Project will provide 5 million gallons of drinking
water for 40 000 people a day by 2028. It aims to power around 15% of its
output with solar panels and will integrate an energy recovery process resulting in what it claims is
“45% to 55% less energy usage” than a system without that feature.
A desalination
plant in Oman aims to be among the first facilities in the
Middle East to be powered by renewable electricity. It will switch part of its
energy generation to a solar photovoltaic (PV) farm this autumn. Installed in
partnership with a French energy firm, the PV modules will power a third of its
daily energy consumption.
Tech
breakthroughs
Making membranes uniform in density
could vastly improve the efficiency of desalinisation, researchers have
found. Membranes with “uniform density at the nanoscale” boosted
efficiency in tests by 40%, meaning they can clean more water while using
significantly less energy.
Another breakthrough has been made by
researchers at MIT. Their prototype for a portable desalination device
uses an ion concentration polarization (ICP) electrical field generated by a
small solar panel to purify water. Rather than filtering water, the ICP process
applies an electrical field to membranes placed above and below a channel of
water. The membranes repel positively or negatively charged particles –
including salt molecules, bacteria and viruses – as they flow past. The charged
particles are funnelled into a second stream of water that is eventually
discharged (read more about this research in: From seawater to
drinking water, with the push of a button MIT News | Massachusetts
Institute of Technology). The suitcase-sized device, which requires
less power to operate than a cell phone charger, is intended for deployment in
remote and severely resource-limited areas, such as communities on small
islands.
The
key role of IEC Standards and certification
Traditional desalination plants
require pumps, electric motors, valves and scrapers to function. As they are
critical assets, they also need supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) systems which incorporate cyber security control features.
IEC International Standards provide
key safety and performance benchmarks in many of these areas. For example, all
fresh and wastewater electric pumps are driven by electric motors most of which
comply with the IEC 60034 series of
international standards.
The IEC also runs four conformity
assessment systems, one of which has direct relevance to the energy efficiency
of motors. IECEE,
the IEC System of Conformity Assessment Schemes for Electrotechnical Equipment
and Components runs the IECEE Global Motor Energy Efficiency Programme (GMEEP).
The programme tests motors in relation to the IEC 60034-2-1 Standard.
The IEC 60534 series of standards, which
is developed by IEC Subcommittee 65B, provides the technical foundation for pneumatic actuating
control valves with electronic positioners. It is considered the bible for the
water purification and wastewater treatment industry.
Most pumping stations are automated,
and many electronic devices are used for their control and supervision.
Programmable logic controllers and remote terminal units are used and
integrated in centralized control rooms with SCADA systems. IEC TC 57 publishes the SCADA standards, for
example IEC 62361-2. IEC TC 65 develops the IEC 62443 series, which include
the relevant cyber security standards.
Harvesting
atmospheric water
Atmospheric water, which is present
regardless of geographical and hydrologic conditions, is emerging as an
alternative water resource. The earth’s atmosphere holds water in the form of
droplets or vapour, accounting for up to 10% of freshwater sources and
providing around 50 000 km3 water according to
researchers. Additionally, the natural hydrologic cycle enables a
sustainable water supply. If water can be harvested in arid and remote areas,
the challenges of long-distance transport or delivery of potable water could be
addressed.
However, there are other issues,
particularly in regions where humidity is less than 70%, requiring a
substantial amount of energy to condense the vapour. A recent trial in
the Death Valley desert used a metal-organic framework powered
solely using ambient sunlight to absorb atmospheric water vapour. What’s
significant is that the research team’s harvester extracted water without
generating any carbon footprint even in extremely hot and dry weather
conditions, with an average night humidity of 14%. This process has emerged as
a most promising method of water extraction.
Floating
PV panels
Increased demand for solar-generated
electricity to replace fossil fuels could also help save water. Less than one
per cent of the world’s solar installations are currently floating on inland
sites like reservoirs. If more floating photovoltaics (FPV) were installed,
they could prevent water loss from evaporation.
According to a study published
in the journal Nature, 6 256 communities and/or cities in 124 countries,
including 154 metropolises, could be self-sufficient with local FPV plants.
Doing so would save enough water to supply 300 million people per year.
A 2021 study found
that floating solar panels on a reservoir in Jordan, one of the world's most
water-scarce countries, reduced evaporation by 42%, while producing
425 MWh of electricity annually.
IEC TC 82 prepares international standards for solar PV
systems, for example IEC 61701 which specifies
testing for salt mist corrosion, which concerns PV modules situated
in a marine environment. One of its working groups is preparing a technical report,
which is to provide guidelines for safe, reliable and well-performing floating
solar systems.
Smart
water management
The water industry is beginning to
accelerate digital transformation to improve water management practices.
Increasingly referred to as ‘smart water management’ or just ‘digital water’,
such systems rely on sensors to control water flow, pressure, temperature and
liquid levels.
An Indian-based company produces a
smart metering and automated leakage prevention system, which has been used on
apartment buildings in the country. The device is claimed to have helped reduce
overall water consumption by up to 35%, saving precious groundwater and
providing affordable electricity associated with the supply of water.
On a larger scale, water utility
operators are using virtual replicas of water infrastructure networks to model
and respond to issues in real time. These digital twins collect
data from underground SCADA systems, sensors and meters, as well as information
about when a pipe was installed and the material it's made from, to quickly
identify a leak or failure. Digital twins also facilitate continuous monitoring
of water systems, detecting weak areas and resolving problems before they
become catastrophic failures.
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41, the IEC and ISO subcommittee
standardizing the Internet of Things and Digital Twin, is working on several
standards which are expected to facilitate the use of digital twins in many
different areas. A priority is to publish a standard on the reference architecture
for digital twins.
In Jackson,
Mississippi, where leaks plagued the system for years, engineers
have digitally mapped the city’s 100 square miles of water infrastructure and
created a virtual model with live data to monitor flow and pressure, providing
an uninterrupted water service, and improving water quality for the city’s
150 000 residents. The IEC Smart Cities Systems Committee (SyC Smart Cities) is working on a standard for
water management which focuses on the collection and analysis of use cases to
identify standard requirements.
The SyC experts recognize that “water
is undoubtedly one of the most critical resources for urban development and is
therefore a crucial ingredient for the overall common city goals characterized
by sustainable development, efficiency, resilience and safety”.
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