Industrial Water Project of the Year
Jurong Industrial Water Reuse Pilot, Singapore
What is it?
A 1MIGD (4,546m3/d) industrial wastewater treatment pilot alongside the existing Jurong Water Reclamation Plant in Singapore. The demonstration facility treats effluent streams from a mix of local industrial water users in the food & beverage and petrochemical industries.
Who is responsible?
PUB, Singapore’s national water utility, and Meiden Singapore – a subsidiary of Japanese equipment manufacturer Meidensha – developed the plant. Funding came from both partners and the Singapore government-funded Technology Pioneer (TechPioneer) Scheme, which exists to bankroll the test-bedding of new technologies in Singapore.
What makes it special?
In this facility, PUB and Meidensha have combined Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) technology with a ceramic membrane bio-reactor for the first time in Singapore. This unique technology pairing will allow PUB to on-sell industrial-grade water resulting from high-fouling and toxic wastewater streams, while also producing biogas for on-site power generation.
This is the first time that PUB has directly produced industrial-grade water from industrial wastewater. On a larger scale, the process has the potential to free up significant volumes of NEWater (reclaimed municipal wastewater) to meet rising demand elsewhere in the island state.
The successful commissioning of the Jurong pilot facility adds an important new weapon to PUB’s arsenal of treatment options, just as it develops the next generation of treatment facilities in Singapore, starting with the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant. This state-of-the-art facility will be built on reclaimed land, and will eventually replace the ageing Jurong and Ulu Pandan plants.
Distinction
Ujams Industrial Water Reclamation Plant, Namibia
What is it?
A landmark 5,175m3/d wastewater treatment plant in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, using membrane bioreactor technology to clean complex industrial effluent to reuse standards.
Who is responsible?
A consortium of VA Tech Wabag (78.9%), Veolia (17%) and CIM GmbH (4.1%) brought the plant online in October 2014 after winning a BOOT contract tendered by the City of Windhoek. The joint venture, known as Ujams Wastewater Treatment Company (UWTC), will operate the plant for 21 years. GE Water & Process Technologies supplied the MBR system, while Xylem’s Wedeco division furnished the UV system. KfW’s private sector investment arm, Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), provided a ZAR100 million (€7.3 million) loan to cover around three quarters of the construction costs.
What makes it special?
Windhoek continues to be a global pioneer of water reuse. Simultaneously the first industrial water reclamation plant and the first wastewater MBR plant in Namibia, the Ujams project is the latest in a long line of innovations. Veolia and Wabag previously joined forces to commission the world’s first direct potable reuse plant in Windhoek back in 2001.
While consumers worldwide remain squeamish about the toilet-to-tap process, Namibia – the most arid country in sub-Saharan Africa – has been using recycled water for a wide variety of applications for more than a decade. This project will see effluent treated to standards suitable not only for industrial process water and irrigation, but also for blending in with the city’s drinking water at the Swakoppoort Dam.
The complex range of contaminants in the feedwater – a blend of wastewater streams from a brewery, an abattoir, a tannery, a beverage company and a chocolate producer – presented a serious challenge. With a successful seven-month onsite trial, Wabag proved the mettle of an innovative treatment train using its proprietary fine sieving pre-treatment product, Micropur. Combining this with MBR, UV disinfection, sludge treatment and exhaust air treatment, UWTC leveraged the best expertise the private sector had to offer to make its partnership work.
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