YORKSHIRE WATER is believed to be the only water company in the UK regularly using a new device which uses a blast of air to clean pipes.
More than 126 miles of the region’s iron water mains were cleaned last year, using the Whirlwind technology.
It blasts away the build-up of deposits in iron pipes, which can lead to poor water quality and low pressure in the mains.
The technique is similar to sand-blasting and can clean up to 200 metres of water main in an hour, reducing supply interruptions to customers and avoiding water waste.
Whirlwind has largely replaced the traditional scraping technique, where a mechanical rack is dragged through a main to remove deposits.
Large volumes of water were also used to flush out the debris, which then had to be disposed of.
Yorkshire Water invests approximately £40m every year in cleaning and relining water mains.
Research and development manager at Yorkshire Water, Tim Pears, said: “Following a successful pilot, Whirlwind is now part of our normal operations.
“The new technique is not only more environmentally friendly, but is safer to use in practice because it does not have any accessible moving parts or the large forces associated with scraping.”
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