ANGLIAN Water is spending £1m on equipment to help hit its targets for better sludge treatment capacity and renewable energy generation.
The company is investing the money in Hydro International’s SludgeScreen technology to optimise screenings and dewatering efficiency at 10 sewage treatment works.
Twenty two units are being installed at works across the East of England to ensure effective screening procedures to protect equipment and help optimise sludge output. The deal brings the total number of units installed by Hydro throughout the region to 75.
Anglian’s special projects technical manager, Steve Riches, said: “The SludgeScreen units provide high performance screening and dewatering. The equipment protects downstream equipment such as pumps, heat exchangers and anaerobic digesters from difficult inclusions such as rag which evade mechanical screening.
“SludgeScreen gives us increased operating confidence as our experience has shown that investment in these units completely outweighs the costs of unforeseen blockages, maintenance and downtime, which could affect biogas production efficiency.”
The installations will be delivered to nearly all the Anglian Water sites as ‘packaged units,” according to Chris Day, operations director for Hydro Wastewater in the UK. “The units will be platform mounted with control panels fitted and complete. This greatly reduces the time required to install the SludgeScreen units on site. As a result, they can be commissioned and brought into operation very quickly to support Anglian Water’s project timescales.”
The water company is upgrading sludge treatment operations to support its Special Projects Biosolids Programme under its AMP5 capital investment plans. It aims to process at least 80% of its sludge output by advanced anaerobic digestion by the end of 2015.
Optimising biogas production efficiency is essential to help meet targets to generate around 87GWh of electricity annually. Anglian is said to be making “significant progress” towards its target of energy self-sufficiency through a programme of building combined heat and power plants, aiming for a total installed capacity of 20MW.
The SludgeScreen units are being installed at main and satellite sewage treatment works at sites from Lincolnshire to Suffolk and Essex, in separate contracts delivered by Black and Veatch and GTM, a joint venture of Imtech Process and Galliford Try.
WHAT IS IT?
Hydro’s SludgeScreen is described as an efficient, low-maintenance and compact unit that screens primary sludge in one operation, combining inlet screening and pressurised compaction in an inline, enclosed system. Units are designed for either continuous or intermittent operation.
