United Utilities has agreed a contract for its first full scale application of the innovative Nereda activated sludge treatment technology at Kendal Wastewater Treatment Works, following an intensive review of the technology applicability in the UK market.
The plant is designed to treat a people equivalent of 103,000. It will be the largest of its kind in the UK.
Kieran Brocklebank, United Utilities’s head of innovation, said:
“We were the first in the UK to invest in a pilot plant for Nereda at our Davyhulme treatment works – the very site where activated sludge was developed 100 years ago. We’ve been hard at work testing Nereda since then in a number of applications.”
“Moving away from a conventional process over 100 years old is difficult so we took our time to test Nereda across a broad range of criteria including purchase, running costs, and specific technical parameters.”
Simon Chadwick, United Utilities wastewater services director added that the application of the Nereda technology is part of the water company’s drive to reduce operational costs across its wastewater operations.
Compact footprint is one of the key arguments
Rene Noppeney, global Director for water products and innovation for Royal HaskoningDHV, said:
"Kendal treatment works is a great opportunity to demonstrate how Nereda technology can deliver high quality effluent standards, low power requirements and sustainable costs."
Nereda offers a number of advantages over conventional activated sludge due to the nature of the granules. Contrary to conventional processes, bacteria concentrate into a compact granular structure with excellent settling characteristics. The compact structure also leads to the formation of different zones which provides the optimum conditions for simultaneous nitrification and denitrification as well biological phosphorus removal.
Due to these factors the Nereda process can operate at high biomass concentrations leading to compact reactor footprints which was also a key reason behind the decision to use the technology at Kendal WwTW.
United Utilities has signed the delivery contract with LiMA who will be working closely Nereda technology provider Royal HaskoningDHV.
Mark Studholme, LiMA director, commented:
“We are delighted to provide the engineering expertise delivering Nereda as the next generation wastewater treatment technology to our client. Combined with our in-house capabilities for digital and DfMA engineering the delivery of this innovative solution will ensure that the project meets all its outcomes.”
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