Seed Phase Updates
On 30 August 2023, Science Foundation Ireland and Irish Aid selected the REHEATZ project to progress to the Seed Phase of the SFI SDG Challenge. Energised by this vote of confidence, the Irish and Zambian multi-disciplinary research team has extended its collaboration with our industry and societal partners in Zambia and included new strategic stakeholders in the Zambian food sector. During the Seed Phase, we plan to demonstrate the potential of recovering embedded heat in wastewater to reduce energy consumption, cut carbon emissions, generate cost savings and positively impact society.
Our updated project brochure can be downloaded here.
Read a short update from some of the team members below.
Prof Mc Nabola, Team Lead, Trinity College Dublin:
‘During the Seed Phase of the SFI Sustainable Development Goal 13 Challenge, the REHEATZ project is focusing on a number of initiatives. Firstly we will be validating the potential of our technology to save around 10% of the energy and emissions of steam production at Zambeef using a pilot installation at Huntley Farm. Secondly we will be assessing the potential societal impact of the technology, through impacts on corporate social responsibility initiatives. Finally, we will be communicating the REHEATZ concept with a view to assessing the wider potential of the wastewater heat resources in Zambian food and beverage manufacturing, and preparing to scale up the impact beyond our initial pilot plant.’
Dr. Godfrey Hampwaye, Partner Country Team Lead, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (Zambia) and Prof. Pádraig Carmody, Co-PI, Trinity College Dublin:
‘The social impact sub-group has been working actively. The group has pre-tested a baseline survey on both Zambeef suppliers (farmers) and employees. Based on this, refinements have been made to the survey and it will now be rolled out to a wider sample of the respective populations.’
Prof. Paul Coughlan and Dr. Roberta Bellini, Trinity Business School:
‘Recently, we have been collaborating actively with Dr. Danny Museteka and Dr. Godfrey Hampwaye, our Zambian colleagues, to plan an in-person workshop to share knowledge and project progress, and to learn from Zambian companies in the food and beverage sectors about the opportunities and challenges of heat recovery in their operations.
The workshop is planned for November 30, 2023 in Lusaka (10am-2pm) in a city centre venue. The workshop is designed around a Focus Group format, with contributions from our engineering colleagues, our partners in Zambeef and group discussions to enable questioning, reflection and progress towards realisation of the opportunities for heat recovery in wastewater in food and beverage production. See the flyer’s event here.’
Dr. Madhu Murali, Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin:
‘My focus in the last few months of the seed phase has been on collating our findings from our trip to Lusaka in April and continued wastewater temperature monitoring into a report for our partners, Zambeef. This report outlined the next steps we propose in the technical aspect of the project, mainly to install a pilot heat recovery system at a Zambeef site. Recently, I have also worked on collaboratively developing a design for this proposed pilot heat recovery system with our partners and we are now progressing towards its installation in early 2024.’