The UK’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has requested written evidence from Meteor Communications, the specialist provider of remote water quality monitoring systems, as part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into water quality in rivers. The submission was timely because it was made while sewage spills were the subject of intense media attention, and after the Environment Act 2021 placed a new responsibility on sewerage undertakers to progressively reduce the impact of discharges from storm overflows.

Balfour Beatty, in collaboration with Innovate UK, Leeds Beckett University, Hertfordshire University and White Frog Publishing, has created a carbon calculation tool for the construction and infrastructure industry – offering a consistent, practical solution for the measurement of embodied carbon.

Currently in its beta testing phase, the AutoBIM Carbon Calculator automatically links BIM data to embodied carbon data from the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) database, an online source which provides energy and embodied carbon information for construction materials.

In addition, the platform allows users to input information from environmental product declarations sheets – verified and registered documents that provide transparent and comparable data about the environmental impact throughout the lifecycle of a product or material.

The innovative platform will support teams during the design phase of a project to compare products and materials, provide alternative solutions and ultimately help those involved make informed, low-carbon decisions.

Having launched its new sustainability strategy Building New Futures last year, the AutoBIM Carbon Calculator marks another step forward in Balfour Beatty’s journey to going beyond net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Rachel Sudlow, Balfour Beatty’s strategic improvement project manager, said: “The construction and infrastructure industry has previously struggled to offer a consistent approach when it comes to the measurement of embodied carbon. That is why we have collaborated with leading industry experts to create the AutoBIM Carbon Calculator, which will make a real and positive difference to how our industry operates. The introduction of such a tool is long overdue and with the impact of our work on the environment front of mind, it is a truly welcomed development.”

The AutoBIM Carbon Calculator is currently being trialled across four of Balfour Beatty’s projects, including the Institute of Regeneration and Repair at the University of Edinburgh, to which the company was appointed in 2019 through the SCAPE Civil Engineering framework. During trials on live projects, the use of this tool has evidenced a potential saving of up to 14% of embodied carbon through more informed design choices.

Following a phased roll-out across Balfour Beatty’s projects over the next six months, the AutoBIM Carbon Calculator will be available to the wider industry within the next 12 months, with plans to expand its remit to measure the energy performance of products and materials post completion.

As a supplier of remote water quality monitoring systems, Meteor Communications was recently invited to speak at a Xylem event in Manchester City’s Etihad stadium. With an ‘Opportunity of a lifetime’ theme, the event invited participants to utilise the power of technology and expertise to achieve water security and sustainability.

Meteor’s Matt Dibbs provided delegates with an insight into the latest technologies for high-resolution monitoring, citing several large-scale, ongoing programmes in which Meteor’s portable and kiosk based modular ESNET (environmental sensor network) systems are delivering continuous data streams for a wide variety of environmental parameters. In the majority of water quality monitoring applications, Meteor employs the Xylem EXO2 multiparameter sonde; either in a chamber through which sample water is pumped, or as part of a battery powered portable system.

In May 2018, the Hawaiian volcano Kilauea erupted with devastating consequences - destroying homes, displacing hundreds of people and emitting high levels of dust and harmful gases. Aside from the human tragedy that this created, the eruption provided a unique opportunity to monitor the air quality of a volcano during the eruptive phase, and researchers have employed innovative low-cost sensors to do so, as part of a dense monitoring network.

The Hawaiian Department of Health operates several air quality monitoring stations on the island, but at the time of the eruption scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, had already begun building a denser network of monitoring sites in response to air quality concerns relating to volcanic smog or ‘vog’.

FPT Industrial is sustainably powering the new Natural Gas (NG) MethanePowered Wheel Loader Concept – Project TETRA from CASE Construction Equipment, presented at Bauma 2019, in Munich, Germany. With this announcement, FPT Industrial reinforces its commitment to develop sustainable solutions specifically adapted to off-road applications.

The new wheel loader concept is the first Natural Gas construction machine from CASE Construction Equipment and is powered by a 6-cylinder NG engine from FPT Industrial’s NEF family. This power unit, delivering power up to 230 hp and torque up to 1,184 Nm, has diesel-like performance, but with a smoother and quieter drive. It also offers the same reliability and durability and fuelsavings up to 30%. The engine runs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), ensuring 15% less CO2 and 99% less Particulate Matter than its diesel-based counterpart.

ALS Environmental are proud to announce the introduction of a new file import application that is now available. Chameleon is an in-house built application that generates Excel registration files, that when completed, can be directly imported into ALS' sample registration system.

This application is suitable for customers to log their sample and analytical requirements or the registration team to enter sample information for received samples. In both instances, if the file is completed correctly, it will make the registration process more efficient and accurate. There are however a few factors that would need to be considered to establish a customer's suitability. Also a customer that already has a specific file import set up would not be able to use Chameleon files.

Ashtead technology has been appointed as the preferred distributor and rental partner for the GES Gas-Tec (Mk4 & Mk5) FID Hydrocarbon Gas Detectors. “We are delighted with this partnership agreement,” says Matthew Herrick, General Manager at GES. “Ashtead Technology selects the best products for its instrumentation fleet and has a reputation for the highest levels of service, so we believe that Ashtead is the ideal company to sell and rent the Gas-Tec products.”

Incorporating an FID, the Gas-Tec instruments respond to almost all volatile hydrocarbons which makes them ideal for leak detection including natural gas surveys, landfill surveys, contaminated land, environmental surveys and methane sniffing.

Carbon Zero Consulting is delighted to announce that it has started work at Euro Quality Lambs Ltd having been appointed to investigate the possibilities of creating their own water supply. Euro Quality Lambs is one of the largest lamb abattoirs in Europe capable of processing up to 25,000 carcasses a week with onsite boning and further processing facilities. They use a significant amount of water each year and in an effort to achieve cost savings have decided to install their own private water supply borehole.

Installing a private water borehole is a complex process. Carbon Zero Consulting Ltd specialises in this area having had extensive experience in UK hydrogeology across many sectors and as many geological scenarios. They have already carried out a thorough water audit, geology assessment and conformed with all Environment Agency requirements necessary for drilling, testing and installation of the borehole. A borehole design suitable for the specific aquifer has now been developed together with WB & AD Morgan Ltd, a drilling contractor with great experience of working in similar geology.

Quantitech has a long-standing reputation for the supply and service of high quality environmental monitoring instruments in the UK. However, following acquisition by Gasmet Technologies, the company has invested in the resources necessary to design, deliver, install and commission complete integrated emissions monitoring systems, and a video has been published on the Quantitech website explaining the advantages of this new capability.

“Almost every industrial emissions monitoring application has different site-specific requirements, so it makes sense to be able to deliver bespoke systems,” says Quantitech Managing Director Ken Roberts. “With flexible multigas capability, Gasmet’s MCERTS approved FTIR analysers are able to monitor most of the key gases, but we are now delivering complete systems including additional analysers and data management systems for parameters such as particulates, oxygen and flow.

The latest air quality monitoring equipment from the company Air Monitors has been used extensively by a variety of news channels to support the ever-growing media attention being given to urban air quality. “In contrast with the air pollution of the 1950’s, the problem is no longer visible,” says Managing Director Jim Mills. “It used to be possible for city dwellers to see the smog, but monitoring technology is necessary to highlight today’s invisible threats; which are mainly fine particulates and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

“We have been happy to support the media in its efforts to highlight the problems that exist in our towns and cities, because the public needs to be made aware of this very serious threat, and because the development of lightweight, accurate air quality monitors has meant that it is now possible to identify the precise location of pollution hot-spots.

In 2016 Gasmet launched a free App on both iOS and Android, providing anyone with an interest in gas monitoring with quick and easy access to an enormous volume of highly useful information.

The App has now been downloaded hundreds of times by people from every continent, but to help users make the most of the App’s capabilities Gasmet has now published an explanatory video, which is available on the Gasmet YouTube channel or from the Technology page of www.gasmet.com.

A comprehensive Soil Resource Survey carried out for the Royal Horticultural Society by soil scientists at Tim O’Hare Associates (TOHA)for the proposed RHS Garden Bridgewater will provide an exemplar case study on the sustainable re-use and management of existing soils.

The proposed new garden – on the site of the former Worsley New Hall in Salford, to the north west of Manchester – has been designed by landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith. Soils on the 63 ha site, which slopes down to the Bridgewater Canal on its southern boundary, range from a sandy loam, through alluvial silts and clays in the woodland areas, to peaty soils in the meadows abutting the canal.

Renewable heating expert Finn Geotherm is embarking on a project in collaboration with Lincolnshire-based renewable energy hub Greenio, that will see William Farr School in Lincolnshire become a truly green school.

The school is undertaking a £900,000 investment to install biomass and ground source heat pump technology which will completely replace its existing gas boiler system. The 16 week project is being led by Greenio, who are installing five biomass boilers, and subcontracting the ground source system to experts Finn Geotherm.

Finn Geotherm is installing two Lampoassa Eli 90 ground source heat pumps at William Farr, linked to around 10,000 metres of ground loop which is being installed underneath a football pitch adjacent to the school. The 180kW ground source system will run alongside Greenio's biomass boilers to generate all the heating and hot water required by the 1500 pupil comprehensive school.

The Gasmet APP is now available free of charge on both iOS and Android Smartphones, providing anyone with an interest in gas monitoring with quick and easy access to an enormous volume of highly useful information.

The APP contains a link to a library of information on 500+ compounds providing IR spectra in addition to chemical formula, molecular weight, boiling point etc. for each gas.

Quantitech is delighted to announce that the Gasmet Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS II e) and the portable (DX4000) FTIR analysers have been awarded an MCERTS certificate (Sira MC030014/08) demonstrating compliance with the MCERTS Performance Standards EN15267-3 & QAL 1 as defined in EN 14181. The certificate demonstrates enhanced performance across an extended range of gases.

The MCERTS certificate confirms the performance of Gasmet’s FTIR analysers for the measurement of CO, NO, SO2, NO2, N2O, HCl, NH3, H2O, HF, CO2, O2, CH4 and CHOH. However, Quantitech MD Ken Roberts says: “Customers will be particularly interested in this certificate because of the exceptionally good figures for Hydrogen Fluoride, and the data for Nitrogen Oxide and Formaldehyde are also very significant because no other FTIR is certified down to 150 mg/m3 NO in 40 vol-% water and no other instrument is approved for Formaldehyde at all.”

The OTT Hydromet Group has announced a new distribution strategy for the Sea-Bird Coastal product range of water quality sensors and monitors. “These instruments fit very well with our range of water monitoring technologies,” says OTT’s European Sales ManagerMarcus Meckelmann. “We also share similar customer bases, so the key Sea-Bird Coastal products will be available exclusively through OTT’s European subsidiaries and official distributors.”

A new electric-drive shredder designed and engineered by Austrian headquartered UNTHA, is set to increase capacity, profitability and safety levels in the pioneering wood recycling and biomass market. And, unusually for this sector, the ground-breaking technology is now available as either a static or mobile solution.

CP Electronics, a leader in the design and manufacture of energy saving lighting controls, has announced the launch of its very first range of smartphone apps which will enable contractors and end users alike to control their lighting remotely.

Suitable for infrared-enabled mobile phones working on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and above, the UHS7 and UHS5 apps will replicate the functionality of their handset counterparts. Broadly, users will be able to raise and lower lighting levels, turn lights on and off and select scenes – all from a smartphone!

Water level sensing technology from OTT Hydrometry is being used in an intelligent flood warning system that has been installed at a ford in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. The system, which was designed and installed by SWARCO Traffic, monitors water level in the Finham Brook where it passes under the A452, and warns drivers when potentially dangerous conditions arise.

Globally renowned engineering specialist UNTHA has launched the world’s first electrically-driven mobile shredder following extensive successful trials across Europe.

The ‘XR mobil-e’ is the latest innovation from the Austrian-headquartered alternative fuel production experts. With the same design features as the internationally acclaimed static XR, this mobile solution provides customers with identical benefits – high throughputs, low operating costs, energy efficiency, low noise, foreign object protection and ease of maintenance. Yet it is the first machine of its kind to shred with a low power electric drive and, thanks to its on-board auxiliary power pack, it can be easily moved around a production facility and plugged back in.