SA Water says that it has successfully trialled an initiative that uses advanced sensors mounted on drones to measure greenhouse gas emissions.
The technology was tested at SA Water’s Christies Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The plant processes wastewater from Adelaide’s southern suburbs and takes the sewage through several treatment process stages before it’s either reused as recycled water or returned to the environment.
The government-owned utility, which provides water and sewerage services to more than 1.8 million South Australians, teamed up with delivery partner Suez for the drone project.
The trial involved a specially equipped drone capturing real-time data on methane and nitrous oxide emissions from the plant’s treatment processes.
This testing worked in tandem with ground-based monitoring systems, which SA Water claims provides “a more comprehensive and efficient approach” to creating detailed models and identifying target areas to reduce emissions.
The utility noted that the levels of emissions detected were well within community and worker safety requirements.
“This is a great opportunity to explore how new technology can support our goal of providing sustainable wastewater services for South Australians,” SA Water’s senior manager of Environment and Energy James Crocker says.
The need to better track emissions
Crocker says that as the utility works towards net zero emissions by 2030, the current methods used for regulatory reporting largely rely on theoretical calculations, resulting in limited ability to identify sources for emissions.
“Advanced sensors are capable of detecting and quantifying methane and nitrous oxide concentrations in the air and feeding into a model, allowing us to pinpoint sources of emissions and make informed decisions to reduce them,” Crocker says.
Using the gathered data, SA Water and Suez aim to develop measures to reduce emissions at the Christies Beach site, with potential applications of this technology to the other wastewater treatment plants across the state.
SA Water says that as part of its net zero journey, it harnesses renewable energy through solar generation and the capture of biogas for electricity production onsite.
Another initiative is its Zero Cost Energy Future project which has seen the installation of around 370,000 solar panels across 33 pump stations, treatment plants and other SA Water assets that are aimed at lowering operating costs as well as carbon emissions.
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