Crown Prince to open water treatment plant
20 April 2012 by M&C
On Tuesday 8 May, in Epe, Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander will open the first waste-water treatment plant to use a new water treatment technology called Nereda. This innovative technology makes it possible to treat domestic and commercial waste water in a sustainable and energy efficient manner. The world first of this technology can be found in Epe. It was developed by TU Delft, consultancy and engineering firm DHV and six water boards. As a result of this new technology, waste-water treatment takes up a much smaller surface area, resulting in significant savings in building costs for new plants and energy use.
Efficient treatment of waste water
For around 100 years, waste water has been treated in the Netherlands using a completely biological process that uses bacteria. Now, for the first time, a different bacteria technology is being used. With this new technology, the bacteria that consume the waste water produce small compact balls that sink easily and are simple to separate from the clean water. This technique benefits society as the plants require a smaller surface area, use 30% less energy and the building costs are around 20% lower.
Aerobic granular sludge (left) en active sludge(right) after 5 minutes deposition time
Golden triangle
The discovery of granular sludge and the further joint development to arrive at the Nereda concept are a perfect example of the 'golden triangle' – collaboration between universities, the business world and government authorities to develop Dutch technologies. It is expected that this joint effort will also bear fruit abroad. The Nerada technology is an innovation from TU Delft, which was developed further in a public-private partnership between the Dutch Foundation for Applied Water Research (STOWA), consultancy and engineering firm DHV and six water boards. The waste-water treatment plant in Epe, operated by water board Waterschap Veluwe, is the first in the world to fully use Nerada technology for water treatment on a commercial scale.
More information
www.neredannop.nl
Please refer to the related press release about the Lee Juan Yew Water Prize 2012, awarded to Prof. Mark van Loosdrecht for, among other things, his contribution to the development of this water treatment technology.
