Led by: Thames Water
Partners: Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, University of South Wales, South West Water, and United Utilities
See project updates on the Thames Water website.
This initiative been awarded more than £6 million to decarbonise wastewater treatment – reducing nitrogen oxide emissions and recovering beneficial resources including phosphorus and nitrogen. The water industry consumes between two and three per cent of electricity produced in the UK and around 55 per cent of this – the equivalent of powering over 1.2 million homes – is linked to the processing of wastewater. The project is developing solutions that would reduce the energy required for wastewater treatment.
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Thames Water plan to commission their anaerobic pilot plant in July/August 2024, following on with testing for organic removal and effluent degassing. This pilot will be a cutting-edge plant and the first of its kind for monitoring and control of anaerobic treatment processes able to operate on whole sewage flow at ambient temperatures in the UK. In the coming months, we will push the technological boundaries of wastewater treatment to transform the energy balance of wastewater treatment in the UK. Dwr Cymru Welsh Water are conducting trials on their anaerobic plant, with monitoring provided by DCWW and also the University of South Wales. These trials have provided valuable information on the control and operation of anaerobic wastewater systems in the UK. The University of South Wales are progressing further and are close to finishing their trials on nutrient removal/recovery methods to support selection of adsorbents and defining main parameters for the nutrient plant design. All of the learnings from the research performed by Dwr Cymru Welsh and the University of South Wales have now been integrated into the plan for the Thames Water Pilot study. We anticipate that in the coming months the UK water industry will start to see the progress we are making on ‘Transforming the energy balance of wastewater treatment’. Through our collaborative networks we will disseminate the findings to establish crucial design and operational parameters for the UK.
For more information on Transforming the energy balance of wastewater treatment, take a look at the following resources:
