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The CSIR’s passenger transport research focus is on creating a competitive transport industry and improving safety and access in this industry, as well as localising public transport technologies.
The CSIR’s Detonics, ballistics and explosives laboratory (DBEL) is a uniquely equipped facility, outside of the City of Tshwane, where experimentation is conducted to determine the impact of blast
Water Research Centre
Overview
The CSIR Water Research Centre contributes to the provision of reliable, efficient and functional water and wastewater service delivery, in the interest of economic development, through the development and refinement of smart water use and infrastructure technologies for the public and private sectors.
The centre addresses shortcomings in South Africa’s water planning and accountability; infrastructure operation and maintenance; water treatment technologies and critical domain skills. It also focuses on dwindling water resources, deteriorating water quality, emerging water pollutants and lack of access to alternative water resources.
Strategic objectives
The CSIR invests in the development of technology/software/tools that will improve water resources resilience, thus ensuring availability of water of high quality against the backdrop of the impact of climate change and other stressors, such as trade-offs within the food-water-energy nexus.
The organisation helps improve water management systems through its contributions towards policy reviews and the development of tools and techniques that will reduce the cost of water delivery and promote equitable water use. The aim is to ensure improved water testing methods, purification, water and wastewater treatment, and access to alternative water resources.
The CSIR Water Research Centre also contributes towards scarce skills development (human capital development) in the water sector through bursary and internship programmes.
Researchers aim to develop fit-for-purpose technologies for the development and optimisation of smart and robust water use and wastewater infrastructure with concomitant improved operation and maintenance.
Offerings
Smart water use: Provide knowledge, innovation, skills and services to improve water supply and demand management through effective water resources planning. This also includes improved assessment and testing of water resources, pathways and effluents, and the development of low-cost technology solutions to mitigate water quality challenges.
Smart water infrastructure: Develop comprehensive water infrastructure lifecycle solutions (design, operation and performance management) with a specific focus on raw water reticulation, potable water distribution network, wastewater distribution networks, and water and wastewater treatment plants.
Selected interventions and technologies
Potable water network management through smart systems
Challenge: Dilapidated and poorly operated water supply infrastructure contributing to poor service and non-revenue water.
Solution: (Near) Real-time water distribution network data acquisition with automated analysis and response for enhanced operation and maintenance.
- Smart pressure management system
- Continuous leak detection
- Show stresses on the network
- Smart water metering
- Overview of network performance
- Smart water quality monitoring tools
Decentralised wastewater treatment systems to augment centralised wastewater treatment plants with circular economy benefit
Challenge: Water supply and sanitation backlogs, due to lack of sufficient infrastructure funding, among others.
Solution: Low energy demand and chemical-free water purification and supply, as well as wastewater treatment decentralised systems.
- Low capital expenditure;
- Low operating expenditure; and
- Ease of deployment
Taking advantage of the fourth industrial revolution for development of advanced technologies for water resources management for different users
Challenge: Lack of innovative and effective water data collection, storage and use.
Solution: A National Centralised Water Data Repository that would be easy to access, generate and extract valuable information from in support of water security, economic growth; and
Refine existing tools and develop new tailor-made tools and software to support decision making in water management and planning.
The Malawi Roads Authority appointed the CSIR to conduct an independent investigation into the causes of premature road surface disintegration on the M1 road between Karonga and Songwe.
The CSIR has partnered with the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport to implement a knowledge transfer and skills development programme for young people.
The Gauteng Household Travel Survey for 2019/20 found that about 60% of households spend more than the transport policy maximum of 10% of their income on public transport.
The CSIR, in collaboration with the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), tyre company
Energy Research Centre
The CSIR’s Energy Research Centre provides fact-base expertise and essential research infrastructure to address South Africa’s growing energy needs, and maximise the associated industrialisation opportunities for new products and services.
The centre provides thought leadership, innovation and capacity building to address the two main energy imperatives of energy efficiency and cleaner energy. The centre responds directly to the challenges identified in the National Development Plan by providing unbiased decision support to solve the long-term sustainable energy needs of South Africa, while concurrently addressing issues such as carbon dioxide emissions, water use, uncertainty, localisation and regional development.
The centre’s activities are guided by global trends, contextualised to local realities and focused on developing sustainable energy systems.
The activities can be summarised as follows:
- Conduct directed research in emerging energy technologies and system integration;
- Proof of concept of emerging energy technologies and systems;
- Demonstrate energy technologies and systems in the South African context and support their local industrialisation and commercialisation;
- Conduct directed research on how to optimally design, build and operate cost-efficient, reliable and sustainable energy systems;
- Find optimal pathways for the expansion and operation of energy systems through modelling and simulation;
- Provide policymakers with a scientifically based analysis of market design and regulatory concepts for the integration of new energy technologies;
- Provide support for South African industries on key energy-system-related decisions, and identify and action opportunities for the industrialisation of new products and services; and
- Provide thought leadership on the energy agenda in South Africa and the region.
The CSIR Energy Research Centre aims to be the first point of contact for South African decision-makers on issues relating to the energy transition, business and science related issues. The energy transition is a move towards a more sustainable and cleaner energy system that will eventually result in more efficient energy use and a significant share of the primary energy supply being provided by renewables. The CSIR will leverage the learning from the South African energy transition to support the creation of sustainable energy systems for other African countries.
Research groups: South Africa is well positioned to be among those regional and global leaders who successfully transition to energy systems in which renewable electricity forms the primary energy carrier.
Investment in research and development initiatives that speak to technology innovation and industrialisation is paramount. Such initiatives include:
- Researching and developing energy technology solutions along the energy value chain - for grid, transportation and stationary applications as used in commercial, industrial and residential sectors;
- Creating integrated, cross-cutting teams by establishing national industrial/university/lab consortiums focused on energy storage and conversion systems;
- Contributing to early adoption of hydrogen in niche applications (underground mining, public transportation), Power to X and carbon capture and utilisation.
- Contributing to small-scale embedded generation and self-generation, growth in solar photovoltaic (PV) installation at the commercial and residential level;
- Adding value to the South African economy through industrialisation, small business development, socio-economic development and addressing transformation challenges, over and above energy security;
- Designing and operating smart energy system to optimise and manage the interplay between variable supply sources, demand and storage. Providing a demonstration platform for programmes such as Hydrogen South Africa on the CSIR Pretoria campus. Supporting the implementation of a sustainable, renewable energy based micro-grid;
- Providing scientific and industrialisation support to the energy industry to improve competitiveness and market access opportunities; and
- Developing energy storage technologies to support the increasing renewable energy sector and utilising the opportunity for the country to invest in developing the South African battery industry, which will, in turn, reduce the cost of battery cells and improve ease of accessibility of electricity in the African continent.
#WomensMonth2023: Maves Tau - Breaking barriers and impacting society
