Raw materials can be extracted from waste water by separating it rather than treating it biologically. The process also emits no greenhouse gases. The clean water is used to replenish the Twellose stream. This concept fits in perfectly with the water authority’s vision and offers opportunities for the future, for example, in combatting local water shortages.
Wilp water factory pilot installation
From May 2019 to June 2020, a pilot installation with a unique and innovative treatment concept was tested at the water treatment plant in Terwolde. The pilot provided valuable information on the quality of the treated water, energy consumption, costs, the reliability of the installation and the volume of residue flows. The pilot showed that, with the physical-chemical separation process, the treated water is of excellent quality, a high percentage of medical waste is removed and chemicals like cellulose and nitrogen can be extracted from the residue. As the treatment process does not use bacteria, no greenhouse gases are emitted. Energy consumption and operational costs are higher than with conventional treatment, but are still within the requirements set by the water authority.
Optimisation and research
There are also areas with room for improvement. The pilot shows that we can extract the residue flows from the process, but that we need to conduct further research into how we concentrate these flows even more and separate them into individual substances. We will also be exploring ways on reducing costs in the next phase.
Final design to be built in phases
The next step is to convert the results into a final design for the water factory. This design will then be built in phases, enabling the volume of waste water treated to be increased step by step from 2.5 to 50 and eventually to 150m3 per hour. In this way, the treatment concept can be further optimised during the building process.
Working with our partners
We work on making the process quicker and better every day. And we do that by working closely with our partners: Dutch Water Refinery (Witteveen+Bos and Royal HaskoningDHV), STOWA, Aquaminerals, the municipality of Voorst, Attero and Schoneveld Breeding. The project is being supported financially by the European Union’s LIFE programme.
