Monitoring, optimising, and reducing N₂O emissions in water industry

Water utilities aim to reduce nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, towards their goal of reaching net zero. Like other greenhouse gases, N₂O has been proven to be a significant climate threat. N₂O is 265 times as potent as carbon for heating the atmosphere. Therefore, monitoring N₂O emissions to assess the pathway and implement targeted solutions is crucial. Royal HaskoningDHV is one of the few treatment technology companies that can provide both monitoring & modelling and mitigation technologies to measure and reduce N₂O emissions.

Making an effective assessment and unlocking the desired treatment options require advanced control systems. This is needed to include process emissions in the decision-making process as well as operational cost and energy efficiency. This is where our AI-based technology Twinn Aqua Suite  comes into play. Thanks to the machine learning capabilities, Aqua Suite notifies utility operators on N₂O levels, through direct and indirect measurement.

The need for effective monitoring of N₂O emissions makes utilities turn to technological solutions. Interestingly, some operational strategies that are applied to save energy may make N₂O emissions worse. Peak flow conditions can result in the overloading of a treatment plant and thus increase emissions. Twinn can help treatment plants by balancing the flow through the network without large-scale capital expenditures. Finally, instead of eliminating N₂O, some technologies can recover the nitrogen and transfer it into useful products.

Want to read more? You can find the article (after logging) on Global Water Intelligence’s website. And you can download our whitepaper based on 12+ years of N₂O emission research below.