HEPTech Academia meets Industry: Environmental Applications of Accelerators
8th -9th July 2013, Cockcroft Institute, Sci-Tech Daresbury, UK
With an increasing industrial focus on resource savings, and the adoption of good environmental practises backed by ever-tightening regulatory requirements, accelerator-based solutions for environmental clean-up and production efficiencies are now transferring from the high energy physics laboratory to the industrial workplace.
This HEPTech event brought together industry experts, scientists, application engineers, supply-chain manufacturers and a range of funding bodies to discuss the potential requirements, limitations and opportunities that cutting edge advances bring to a broad range of environmental applications. The event looked to clarify industry’s needs, and foster collaborations which accurately target these requirements with innovative and cost-effective solutions.
The main focus of the day was on water and wastewater treatment, for both municipal and industrial applications. Keynote presentations from United Utilities, Black and Veatch and Microbial Solutions Ltd outlined the main industrial challenges – in particular, the issue of dealing with specific contaminants which are costly to remove, or indeed not treatable at all, with current technologies. The main requirements on technology solutions were also identified, with capital cost, operating cost, ease of integration and energy efficiency being amongst the main priorities. The breakout sessions in the afternoon offered an opportunity for accelerator experts to further explore the applicability of accelerator technology, identifying several routes for more in-depth collaborative work. The meeting concluded that there were significant opportunities in this area and that the technology solution development would require expertise from a range of scientific and engineering disciplines. The meeting organisers will be following up on these opportunities with the help of the meeting participants.
