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Schemes for University Lecturers
Industrial Secondment Scheme: Case Study
Ozone Treatment of Drinking Water
 Dr Chedly Tizaoui
Senior Lecturer in Process and Environmental Engineering University of Bradford
Seconded to Yorkshire Water Services Ltd
Chedly Tizaoui graduated with
a first class honours degree in Chemical and Process
Engineering in 1996 and obtained an MSc in
solid/liquid extraction in 1998. He received his PhD
from the University of Bradford in 2001 for work on
a novel ozonation process in water treatment. He was
EPSRC sponsored Research Assistant at University of
Bradford from 1998 until 2001 prior to his
appointment as lecturer in 2001.
Why a secondment?
Chedly has a strong interest
in and experience of teaching and training
undergraduate and postgraduate students in the areas
of water and wastewater treatment processes. The aim
of the secondment was to gain exposure to industrial
practice with a view to improve the industrial
relevance of the modules he taught.
In Yorkshire Water Services (YWS)
Ltd, a number of treatment sites use ozone to
primarily remove trace organic compounds (e.g.
pesticides) and disinfect water. Operating ozone
systems efficiently is a challenging process since
these systems are relatively new to the water
industry and present a certain level of complexity.
A six-month project related to ozone treatment sites
was agreed with YWS. The secondment offered the
opportunity to get familiar with typical water
treatment processes and to carry out detailed
hands-on work on ozone treatment systems.
The objectives of the
secondment were:
Personal objectives
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Achieve hands on
experience in the water and wastewater industry
and develop better understanding of industry
needs for engineering teaching and research.
-
Understand current and
future regulatory drivers, which will focus
teaching and research.
-
Develop an understanding
of the management skills used in industry and
apply to teaching and research.
-
Build new contacts in
industry.
University objectives
-
Build long-term
relationships between Yorkshire Water Services
Ltd and University of Bradford.
-
Update and improve the
current curriculum and develop a new MSc course
in the areas of water and wastewater treatment
processes.
Company objectives
Project objectives
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Develop an auditing
strategy for each of the ozone sites.
-
Carry out auditing of the
ozone sites.
-
Identify areas of concerns
and improvement.
-
Develop recommendations to
improve and optimise the performance of the
ozone sites.
Yorkshire Water Services Ltd
Yorkshire Water Services (YWS)
Limited is part of the Kelda Group Plc. The group
provides water and wastewater services to customers
in the UK and the USA and employs over 3,300 people.
The main activity of YWS is the collection,
treatment and distribution of around 1.24 billion
litres of drinking water each day. The company also
collects, treats and disposes of about one billion
litres of wastewater every day. It has a grid
system, which is continuously improved, containing
700 water and wastewater treatment works and 120
reservoirs and operates 40,000 miles of water and
wastewater mains. YWS was voted as the Utility
Company of the Year in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Benefits
All of the objectives of the
secondment were met in full. Chedly gained hands-on
industrial experience in ozone processes applied in
the drinking water industry, and a good working
knowledge of the control and data acquisition tools
used in the water industry (e.g. Supervisory Control
And Data Acquisition (SCADA)). The experience is
being used to support the teaching of Civil
Engineering undergraduate students and the
development of a new MSc course. Several case
studies supported by data from the secondment have
also been prepared to complement lectures.
A long-term link and
collaboration with Yorkshire Water Services have
been established. Chedly’s contacts in the company
helped, for example to facilitate site visits for
his students and initiated collaborative research
projects and future consultancy work.
‘In my view the Royal
Academy of Engineering’s Industrial Secondment
scheme offers a win-win case to all parties. I
highly encourage other colleagues to benefit from
the scheme. It has been a great success with
Yorkshire Water Services.’
Dr Chedly Tizaoui
Statement from the Industrial Host
‘The six months that Chedly
was working with us was very constructive, and those
who came into contact with him were impressed with
the work he carried out for us. Whilst we (as a
company) were able to give him an insight into our
operational practices and the constraints that we
have to deal with, we benefited from Chedly bringing
a completely different perspective to our issues;
it's been an education!’
Rosemary Smith
Senior Research and Development Scientist
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