New technology tackles odours at Davyhulme

8 March 2016

A team of graduates at United Utilities has come up with a new way to tackle odours at Davyhulme wastewater treatment works.

They’ve installed a state-of-the-art new system that will help engineers at the site to reduce the chance of smells escaping from the process. 

It’s the first time the Odowatch system has been installed in the North West region and it will help the water company be a better neighbour to residents living in the Urmston and Davyhulme areas.

Graduate mechanical engineer, Chris Bates, explained how the project came about: “As part of our graduate training programme we worked with colleagues in the company’s Innovation team to look at the latest technology on the market to see if it could be used to tackle some of United Utilities’ most difficult problems.

“We knew straight away that odour management was an important issue for the company, and Davyhulme was the perfect place to put any new technology through its paces.”

The Odowatch system works by constantly “sniffing” the different parts of the treatment process and giving an early warning if odours start to develop. Engineers can then take early action, reducing the chance of smells becoming noticeable off site.

The clever software also uses live weather data to build up a picture of how factors like temperature and wind speed could affect the odours. 

The installation is the beginning of a major programme of change at Davyhulme. The site is currently undergoing a £200m upgrade, aimed at modernising the treatment process for the growing city of Manchester. 

The three-year project will allow Davyhulme to treat the city’s wastewater more efficiently to even higher standards, leading to a cleaner local environment.