Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The process, which saves millions of litres of drinking water per day, was developed by Anglian Water Technology Group for Alpheus Environmental, which owns and operates the system.

Rather than using drinking water to supply a neighbouring power station, the £1 million membrane filtration system at Flag Fen, Peterborough takes effluent and turns it into high purity water which is suitable for industrial use.

By using this chemical-free process the power station has been able to reduce its use of de-mineralising chemicals by 87 per cent.

Some 1.2 million litres of drinking water used to be supplied to the power station every day - enough for 6,500 people’s daily requirements.

This water is now available for other customers, which is good news for one of the country’s driest and fastest growing regions.

There are currently only two other plants of this kind in operation in the world, one of which was implemented by Anglian Water in Australia.

The system can be used by other power stations, oil refineries and the chemical process industry. It also has great potential in countries where water resources are limited.

John Murrer of the Anglian Water Technology Group said: “To be recognised in this way for such a practical and usable solution is fantastic.

“The team has gained a great deal of satisfaction from being involved in a project that has such enormous benefit to industrial and domestic customers, as well as the environment.”