Adrian Heneghan, Business Development Manager at wastewater technology specialists HUBER Technology Ltd., takes a look at why containerised sludge treatment solutions are set to play a key role in AMP8.

Adrian Heneghan: In the run up to AMP8, we’re seeing a significant increase in the level of interest in our WIMES compliant containerised small scale sludge thickening solution – due to the operational benefits, cost savings and associated carbon reductions.

I’m not over-exaggerating to say that we think the potential our containerised sludge solutions offers for hundreds of sites across the UK in terms of cost and carbon savings is enormous.

We saw the increased interest when we had our containerised solution in place at last year’s Biosolids conference in November 2023 in Manchester. People who hadn’t seen it before were able to see first-hand the potential benefits of an end to end technology all in a single container as a real plug and play solution which could help them address many of their operational and investment challenges.

We’ve already put a number of our sludge thickening containers in place at sites across the UK or they’re currently under active consideration – so we are expecting to see more go in during the course of AMP8.

We believe the containerised solution is finally coming into its own for a number of reasons.

Firstly, from a health and safety point of view – which is a key issue at the moment – using a container has major benefits. The fact that it's all completely built offsite removes many of the risks associated with onsite construction of assets, not to mention time saved in terms of M &E installation time and reduced construction time.

It’s also pre-commissioned prior to delivery - so it arrives on site as a straightforward plug and play solution with no need to retrofit to any existing infrastructure. All that is required is a base slab in place where it can be positioned, connected to sludge inputs/outputs and power and ready to go from that point - delivered one day and operating the next.

The other massive benefit which the water companies can immediately recognise is undoubtedly the significant carbon reduction the containerised solution provides. Compared to a traditional construction concrete-intensive approach to house the sludge treatment technology, all that’s needed for the container to sit on is the concrete slab.

One of the main advantages for sites where HUBER has been asked to provide our solution is a substantial reduction in the levels of tankerage movements to and from the sites.

Photo: Red line below shows new location of container;

green and blue lines show feed and return to above ground sludge tanks

To take one example, March 2023 saw the completion of a project for Dwr Cymru Welsh Water at its St Davids Sewage Treatment Works in rural west Wales as part of an upgrade to improve the sludge thickening on site with the primary aim of reducing the number of tanker movements from the works. This was due to the narrow access in and out of the area at the site and a recent nearby hotel development that was keen to ensure that tankers weren’t passing by its premises every single day. There was also a need to provide a building or enclosure as none existed on the isolated site.

The containerised thickening solution is particularly well suited to small to medium size sites, including sites in isolated and remote locations. In terms of flow rates, we're looking at up to 20 m³/hour of sludge.

The project at the St. Davids STW saw a reduction from 12 tankers to a single tanker a week.

Quite apart from a contribution to the capital costs by the happy hotel owner, it also delivered a considerable range of benefits in terms of carbon reduction and a significant reduction in tankering costs alone, running to tens of thousands of pounds a year.

It’s worth just taking a closer look at a single typical tankering example to get some idea of the potential tankering cost savings involved in terms of fuel, drivers and time spent at sites which switch to a containerised solution.

Ten tanker movements at an average cost of £800 each over the course of a month would come to £8,000 – adding up to £96,000 a year. More than one visitor to our Biosolids stand described the containerised solution as a no-brainer when they realised the potential payback time could be within a few years. We know that any containerised solutions we put in place during AMP8 will be delivering long-term cost savings into AMP9 and beyond.

Not to mention the fact that the use of sub-contracted tankering operators who may be attending sites they are unfamiliar with will no longer be required - and in the process also removing the associated health and safety risks, potential accidental damage to site assets etc.

It’s also worth noting that HUBER also manufacture the control panels to each water company's specifications for the containerised solutions – which are all WIMES compliant and can be integrated with whichever particular automation platform the water company is using.

So what are the perceived risks?

Mention containerised solutions and one of the questions we are often asked is if the equipment is in a container how will we be able to maintain it.

In terms of maintenance and after sales support, our containerised solution has been specifically designed and engineered to be easily maintained by the water company itself. Everything in the container is accessible from three sides which open fully so standard maintenance activities like cleaning, removing and changing filters etc can be undertaken by their own operators and maintenance teams. The container also incorporates an access door for the site operator to easily access the control panel. The container in this location is blue – but going forward we are also supplying these in green which in terms of visual appearance may be more suited to blend in at more rural locations.

Of course, we also have separate maintenance agreements in place when more extensive work is needed.

Even then, the gull wing doors which open at the long side of the container and doors that open fully on both ends means we can simply strip out any piece of equipment which needs to be repaired or replaced and drop its replacement in i.e. little or no operational downtime is involved.

In addition, for a major piece of equipment – maintenance can be carried out without having to remove any equipment offsite. For example, to carry out maintenance on the disc is a straight forward operation- we can simply hoist it out, change the disc and put it straight back in, without having to remove any of the other equipment that sits alongside.

Containerised solutions – already on the shopping list for AMP8

To sum up, looking ahead to the future we know this type of solution is set to be on the shopping list for AMP8 – we’ve already got orders coming in and planned for delivery later this year. I think it’s true to say containerised solutions are definitely already on the water sector’s radar to tackle some of the significant wastewater challenges in AMP8 – and if they aren’t, they should be.

I’d also like to emphasise that the off-site build for our containerised solutions all happens here in the UK – we’ve got all the capability we need here in the UK to assemble them.

Looking to AMP8, it’s clear that the upcoming expenditure levels outlined for the next 5 years and beyond will require significant increases in investment. Containerised solutions offer the sector a great opportunity to keep a lid on costs, reduce their carbon emissions and help future-proof their operational assets in the longer term.

For a working demonstration, we’ve also got a curtain -sided trial unit which is a very similar layout to the containerised solutions which we can make available for up to two weeks prior to purchase for sites with difficult to treat sludge applications. We know from experience this will be ample time to convince potential customers of the benefits!

So whether you’re a water company or one of their contractors, if you’re interested in exploring this opportunity further, we’d like to start talking to you sooner rather than later so we can optimise production and delivery times for our forward order book.

Please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or ring me on 07540 667094.