AMERSFOORT, the Netherlands – Sweden is now the latest country to be using the Nereda wastewater treatment technology from Dutch consultancy, Royal HaskoningDHV.
MunicipalityStrömstad will be the first in the country to use the technology, with construction already started and project completion scheduled for June 2018.
Econet Vatten & Miljöteknik has been appointed by the municipality of Strömstad to deliver and install all the mechanical equipment.
Located close to the Norwegian border, Strömstad is an increasingly popular holiday destination for tourists and the town’s population swells enormously during the summer months, more than doubling the number of residents.
As a result, the municipality had to design the new plant to be able to cope with widely varying volumes of wastewater. The plant also has to also remain efficient during very cold conditions in the Swedish winter.
Invented by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, the technology was developed in a public-private-partnership between the University, the Dutch Foundation for Applied Water Research, the Dutch Water Boards and Royal HaskoningDHV.
Nereda treats wastewater using aerobic granular biomass. The purifying bacteria consume the wastewater and produce small balls that sink, which are said to be “simple to separate from clean water”.
Jerry Johansson of the municipality of Strömstad, responsible for the wastewater plant, said: “We needed to increase the capacity of its wastewater treatment works while reducing the operational costs and the energy consumption. Several different types of wastewater treatment technology were considered before being rejected in favour of Nereda, which is a natural sewage treatment process that purifies water without chemicals by using the patented aerobic granular sludge technology.”
Bert Bakker, project manager of Royal HaskoningDHV, added: “This technology has been tried and tested all over the world, from hot and arid conditions in South Africa to very cold winters in Poland so we knew that low temperatures in Sweden would not present a problem. It also can easily adapt between high and low volumes of wastewater.”
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