HUBER Technology have been involved with a large, high profile project with the @One Alliance to supply preliminary treatment equipment for a newly constructed inlet works and the addition of mechanical sludge thickening plant to accept sludge from the new Nereda activated sludge process at Anglian Water’s Great Dunmow Water Recycling Centre.

The sludge treatment specialist was contacted in late 2016 by the @One Alliance to work on a large, high profile project in Essex to build a newly constructed inlet works and the addition of mechanical sludge thickening plant to accept sludge from the new Nereda activated sludge process.

The innovative Nereda wastewater treatment technology purifies water using the unique features of aerobic granular biomass – it is estimated that the process requires only a quarter of the area of conventional activated sludge installations and can reduce energy costs by up to 50%.

The award-winning technology was invented by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and developed in a unique public-private partnership between the University, the Dutch Foundation for Applied Water Research (STOWA), the Dutch Water Authorities and Royal HaskoningDHV.

Photo: Installed S-DISC at Great Dunmow

HUBER Technology provided a skid-mounted packaged sludge thickening plant located within an existing blower building to provide adequate protection upstream of the Nereda process itself.

The Great Dunmow project was under scrutiny from the outset – the works is one of the first sites where a full scale Nereda system has been operated within mainland UK.

Due to space and time restrictions the approach taken was to design a DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly), “build off site” or “plug and play” solution.

Key benefits of the DfMA solution included:

• All prewired, fitted and tested prior to delivery
• Savings in both time and cost compared to conventionally installed solutions
• Reduced Health and Safety risk on site
• Smaller carbon footprint
• Improved quality whilst also reducing commissioning and optimisation times and waste.
• Agreement on standard solution means lead times are more certain

Dale Foster- Area Manager at HUBER technology commented:

“The complex challenges of this project meant that it was imperative we engaged early and effectively with @One Alliance. This was made easier by a team of engineers from all disciplines who understood the nature of the problems and worked closely with us to develop a robust but cost-effective solution.”

“We are confident that the DfMA S-DISC sludge thickening package supplied will provide the end user with a robust and reliable sludge thickening solution that can be cost-effectively repeated on other sites. Over several years, the S-DISC has proven to be an excellent space saving solution for sludge thickening that has a number of advantages over more conventional sludge thickening technologies.”  

Click hereto read the Great Dunmow case study in full