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Royal visit to world-first water treatment process

06 Apr 2022

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales visited Carlisle’s water treatment works to see how ultraviolet LEDs are making ripples in the field of low energy water treatment. Developed by Penrith firm Typhon, the technology is the only one of its kind capable of disinfecting drinking water supplies on a large scale.

Tested and developed with water company United Utilities, the technology has been scaled up and now the world’s first ever municipal UV LED disinfection system is in operation at the site.

His Royal Highness met employees from both Typhon and United Utilities and discussed how the award-winning system, with its advantages of superior safety, energy efficiency and low running costs, could help address safe access to water globally. 

Typhon CEO Matt Simpson said: “We were honoured that His Royal Highness was interested to come and learn more about this hugely important leap for UV technology in the water industry. It was wonderful to be able to share the story of how a small local firm and the local water company have worked together to take the idea all the way through from demonstration scale to a marketable industrial application right here in Cumbria.

“We explained how the process works, the challenges involved in developing such a unique disinfection solution, and the potential future benefits for the water industry globally and for high skilled employment opportunities in the North Lakes area.”

United Utilities’ Head of Innovation, Kieran Brocklebank said: “United Utilities is proving to be quite a force for innovation in the UK water sector thanks to our Innovation Lab programme, where we identify and incubate the best emerging technologies. Our relationship with Typhon is a real success story and we were delighted to help showcase what can be achieved when industry fully invests in the next generation of talent and ideas.”