PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, and Canadian- headquartered Anaergia Pte Ltd (Anaergia), have announced the start Singapore’s first project aimed at producing more biogas for electricity generation by co-digesting used water sludge and food waste.

Used water sludge from the Ulu Pandan Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) will be mixed with food waste collected from the Clementi district and treated in a co-digestion demonstration facility. This new combined treatment of used water sludge and food waste has the potential to produce more biogas due to the higher calorific value in food waste.

The co-digestion plant can treat up to 40 tons of combined food waste and used water sludge and will adopt the OmnivoreTM process patented by Anaergia, which makes use of anaerobic digestion.

As part of the project, the National Environment Agency (NEA) will be conducting a district level pilot in Clementi for the collection of source-segregated food waste from various premises – such as educational institutions, hospitals and camps – for co-digestion at the demonstration plant. The demonstration plant is currently under construction and will be completed by September 2015.   

 Harry Seah, Chief Technology Officer, PUB, said:

“This demonstration plant aims to validate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of co-digestion implementation in Singapore. It will provide the opportunity for the water reclamation plants to generate more electricity for process usage. This could potentially allow the used water treatment plant to achieve energy self-sufficiency, which is using only as much energy as the treatment process itself generates.”

 If successful, the process could potentially be implemented at the future Tuas Water Reclamation Plant and NEA’s Integrated Waste Management Facility.

 The collaboration is a result of an MOU signed during the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) in 2014, in which both Anaergia and PUB agreed to explore potential research and technological collaboration, particularly in the domain of waste-to-energy.

 Andrew Benedek, Anaergia’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer commented:

 “There is no better place than Singapore nor a better utility than PUB to work together with to demonstrate Anaergia’s groundbreaking technologies designed to make water reclamation plants energy neutral. All of us at Anaergia are grateful to EDB and PUB for making such a demonstration possible and once the plant is built, we look forward to bringing future clients to view this reference plant.”

 The project was supported with a co-funding grant from the Technology Pioneer (TechPioneer) Scheme, administered by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) on behalf of the Environment and Water Industry Programme Office (EWI). The scheme encourages water companies to use Singapore as a Living Laboratory so that cutting edge technology can be testbedded and commercialised in an actual operating environment. A total of 150 projects involving the testbedding of water solutions have been facilitated at PUB’s installations, and more than 20 test-bedding projects are currently on-going at PUB’s facilities.

Separately, PUB has made it mandatory for all large non-domestic water users consuming 5,000 cubic metres of water per month, or more, to submit Water Efficiency Management Plans to PUB by June on an annual basis. Users are required to identify potential water-savings, develop implementation timelines and install private meters (with funding-support from PUB) to measure and monitor water consumption to account for the breakdown of water use at all major water usage areas in their premises.

Alongside the investment, Anaergia will establish and operate its Asia Pacific Headquarters in Singapore, to serve as its base for engineering services and project management in supporting their operations in the Asia Pacific.

Anaergia’s global headquarters are located in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, with regional lead offices in the United States, Germany and Singapore.