Water Treatment Works

There are over 7000 water treatment works in England and Wales. Water treatment directly contributes to around 1 % of the UK’s total Greenhouse Gas emissions, estimated to be around 4.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2017.

Whilst Greenhouse Gas emissions from the water treatment industry are largely associated with grid electricity use, up to 4 % of the estimated carbon emissions are from methane emitted during the treatment process.

The University of Southampton’s Methane Emissions Monitoring team can accurately measure water treatment plant emissions using the TDM technique. The technique is also being developed to measure Nitrous Oxide (N2O) emissions.