Anglian Water’s Water Recycling Centre (WRC) at Great Dunmow was installed 20 years ago and at the time of development the plant was well equipped to deal with the flow from the neighbourhoods it served at that time.
Since then significant growth in the area has put extra pressure on the site to treat the increased the volume of waste. This challenge provided the opportunity for Anglian Water, and its supply chain partner, the @one Alliance, to consider a better, more efficient way of increasing treatment capacity at the plant.
Project Delivery Manager Richard Screaton: “It’s our first WRC which uses this new activated granular sludge technology which is exciting enough, to then be awarded ‘Best Use of Technology for Carbon Reduction’ at New Civil Engineer’s Tech Fest last month is the icing on the cake!”
“We considered various options for Great Dunmow and in the end we opted for a non-chemical process called Nereda, partnering with engineering specialists EPS Water and Royal HaskoningDHV to design, build and install the new system.
As well as being a chemical free process, important for both on site safety and the environment, the Nereda process also occupies a smaller physical footprint and uses less energy and so it has much smaller carbon usage- in the Great Dunmow Project reducing the carbon footprint by a significant 25%.
The award from New Civil Engineer recognises the reduction of whole life carbon in the design, delivery, operation and maintenance of Infrastructure assets. The speed and actual construction method, along with the rigorous PAS2080 Carbon reduction method that Anglian Water applies were also cited as reasons behind the award.
The previous system involved waste passing through primary and final settlement tanks and the use of Kaldnes biological filters where the air and bacteria removes the ammonia from the waste before it reaches the reed beds.
Nereda treats both the ammonia and phosphorous in the water. The waste is treated in batches, rather than continuously, giving more time for the bacteria to do its work so that no chemicals are needed.
Richard comments: “We’re really pleased to have received this award particular in the carbon reduction category as it recognises Anglian Water’s commitment to improving sustainability throughout our operations.”
