World Water Day 2023: 5 stories of solving water and accelerating change
On World Water Day 2023, Xylem celebrates our customers for delivering clean, safe water and combatting pollution despite mounting water challenges. Here are 5 stories of innovation to make their communities and businesses more water-secure and sustainable.
1. Xylem’s analytics solution in Malaysia detects leaks, bursts and pressure surges in real time
Air Selangor is a large water distribution company owned by the Malaysian state of Selangor. The public utility serves a population of 8.4 million residents and manages over 3,800 miles (6,200 kilometers) of trunk mains, ranging from 300 mm (about 11.81 in) up to 2200 mm (about 7.22 ft), with much of the pipelines located in remote areas of the state. As a national water company making efforts to cost-effectively manage its network, Air Selangor wanted to reduce its high rate of non-revenue water loss (NRW), or water lost due to leaking pipes, broken meters, or unauthorized use.
Air Selangor partnered with Xylem to develop a long-term, state-wide monitoring program to improve asset reliability and resiliency. Xylem Water Loss Management provides real-time digital monitoring and a sensing platform that brings together leak, burst and surge detection to help Air Selangor prevent premature asset failure across the system. In its first year of operation, the solution detected 65 major leaks and bursts in Air Selangor’s pipelines, helping improve asset reliability and resiliency. Read the story. Learn how Xylem is harnessing Idrica’s cutting-edge GoAigua technology for customers.
2. After winter storm Texas city pinpoints where to shut off water with smart utility network
When faced with atypical temperatures, well below 10 degrees Fahrenheit, many Texans quickly realized they were ill-equipped for what unfolded – total loss of power and serious infrastructure damage caused by freezing conditions, including burst pipes. However, the Water and Sewer Utilities team in Jacksonville, Texas, was well-prepared for the winter weather emergency. Using the ally® water meter along with the two-way Sensus FlexNet® communication network, the team ran near real-time usage reports and discovered some customers were losing up to 28,000 gallons (about 105,000 L) of water per day.
Smart technology allowed the city to remotely shut off water distribution to residential customers and protect their homes against flood damage from burst pipes. Another significant benefit of the ally meters was the built-in functionality to remotely identify pressure points around the city, which allowed the team to isolate water main and service line breaks. “Without the Xylem system, the entire city could have been without water, and our response would have been totally different,” said former Jacksonville City Manager Greg Smith. “The system paid for itself in just that one week.” Learn more.
3. Port of Trelleborg eliminates pump stoppages with integrated intelligence
Scandinavia’s largest port for wheeled cargo, Trelleborg, needed to upgrade its wastewater pump stations to prevent flooding and pump stoppages, and to be able to correctly charge incoming vessels for offloading sewage when in port. The port decided to invest in a complete solution from Xylem, including Xylem’s Flygt Concertor, the world's first wastewater pumping system with integrated intelligence, and Avensor, Xylem’s digital service providing alerts and data-driven insights for pump stations.
Flygt Concertor senses the operating conditions of its environment and adapts its performance in real time. In addition, the pumping system enables station operators to deliver energy savings of up to 70 percent compared to a conventional pumping system. Avensor is a digital, cloud-based service that provides alerts and data-driven insights for pump stations or other water infrastructure assets. “Xylem’s cloud-based alarm service gives us a whole new overview,” says Håkan Nilsson, Service Manager at the Port of Trelleborg. “We can see everything that’s going on and can quickly be in place if needed.” Check out the video.
4. Partnering with customers to solve water across India
In the city of Jamnagar, Gujarat, untreated sewage from the city was being discharged into the Rangmati and Nagmati rivers, which meet the sea of the Gulf of Kutch, causing a threat to marine and other biological life, and other environmental challenges. Essar Projects Ltd and Thermax Joint JV took on the task of solving these issues on behalf of the city, and in doing so constructed a 70 million liters per day (MLD) sewage treatment plant.
Essar partnered with Xylem to implement ICEAS advanced sequencing batch reactor technology for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, providing significant advantages in terms of reduced footprint, reliable and robust controls, and low capital, operation and maintenance costs. By deploying Xylem’s Sanitaire ICEAS, the city is now able to treat sewage to prepare it for reuse, and the discharge of treated effluent is no longer a concern for the surrounding marine ecosystems. This is improving community health, as well as the water quality of the Rangmati and Nagmati rivers, which in turn improves riverfront areas and saves freshwater resources. Read more. Watch how Xylem is partnering to solve water in India.
5. Utility reduces aeration energy use by 32% with liquid diffuser cleaning
Aeration can account for as much as 60% of a wastewater treatment plant’s energy consumption, with energy use increasing when the aeration diffusers get clogged. Almunia de San Juan wastewater treatment plant is in the Huesca province of Spain. At the beginning of 2021, the plant saw an increase in energy consumption by the blowers in its aeration system. Plant operators suspected that the diffusers were clogged by calcium carbonate build-up from the water, causing significant head loss in the diffusers.
The solution was simple but impactful. Xylem proposed restoring aeration system efficiency with diffuser liquid cleaning, which uses a proprietary nozzle dosing system to introduce formic acid into the air supply line from the top of the basin. This method evenly delivers the cleaning agent to the diffusers and dissolves the salts embedded in the pores of membranes. Since formic acid is an easily degradable organic acid, and is highly diluted before injection, it does not harm the basin’s sludge communities. The wastewater treatment plant reduced its aeration energy use by 32% without disrupting operations. In the face of high energy prices, these savings give the wastewater treatment plant a significant reduction in its operational costs. In addition, preventive processes like these are critical to helping the water sector lead the way in achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more.
More about how Xylem is solving water for customers.