Water & Wastewater Treatment

4 | november 2014 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Industry news November Yorkshire Water has un- veiled its first sewage treat- ment works that creates enough energy through bi- ogas to power itself, follow- ing the completion of a £34 million project. Esholt Wastewater Treat- ment Works, which was fully reopened on October 3rd a•er two years of improve- ments, will use a Thermal Hydrolysis Process (THP) to generate renewable energy from the 30,000 tonnes of sludge that comes through the site each year. It will pro- duce as much energy as the 750-acre site consumes to heat and power itself, effec- Yorkshire Water opens 'self-powered' sewage plant Contract Tracker Costain and Vinci JV win Shieldhall work A joint venture between vinci Construction Grands Projets and Costain has won an £82m contract to build the Shieldhall Tunnel in Glasgow for Scottish Water. The 5km tunnel, which will be the largest wastewater storage tunnel in Scotland, is designed to improve water quality and help cope with the risk of flooding in the area served by Shieldhall Waste Water Treatment Works. Northumbrian and MWSL to build Gibraltar wastewater works A joint venture between northumbrian Water and modern Water Services Ltd (mWSL) has won a contract to design, build, finance and operate a new waste- water treatment works in Gibraltar. The contract comprises a £22m con- struction project followed by a 20-year operation and maintenance phase. Amey's metering deal with UU in renewed regulated services provid- er Amey has retained its water metering contract with United Utilities (UU). The renewed deal is worth about £70m over the next five years, although contract options mean the value could be more than £100m. tively meaning that the site is self-sufficient. The site uses Veolia's Bi- oThelys system, which com- bines THP with conventional anaerobic digestion (AD) to maximise the efficient pro- cessing of sludge. The THP process effectively pressure- cooks the sludge at 165 de- grees Celsius, turning it into a soup-like consistency and making it easier to capture biogas from. This biogas is then fed back through pipes and combusted in an engine to generate both electricity and heat that is circulated around the large facility. Overall, the upgrade will reduce Yorkshire Water's carbon footprint by 9,000 tonnes and save £1.3M a year in energy costs. Richard Flint, Yorkshire Water CEO, said: "This is a massive step for us as a com- pany and it is good news for the environment, the agri- culture industry and also our customers because it will help us keep bills down. "The technology be- ing used on this site truly is some of the most cutting edge around and it's play- ing a major part in an 80% increase in the amount of renewable energy being gen- erated by Yorkshire Water in the last year." Engineering specialists Morgan Sindall and Gront- mij have undertaken the ma- jor project, in what was one of the biggest contracts ever awarded by Yorkshire Water. wwtonline.co.uk Snooker star Jimmy White made a surprise appearance at the Sus- tainable Water 2014 conference where he took on delegates at the pool table. White, who was six-time runner up in the Snooker World Championship between 1984 and 1994, appeared in the exhibition hall at the conference as a guest of nGS, helping to promote their nationwide gritting and salt supply services, which promise high- quality 'Pure White' salt. White is pictured with WWT editor James brockett, who was one of the first to take him on at the pool table. Despite receiving an early scare, the Whirlwind mounted a comeback later in the game to ensure a narrow victory which le his reputation intact. The two-day Sustainable Water conference, organised by WWT, was held at the Hilton metropole hotel in birmingham on September 23-24, with outgoing environment Agency chairman Lord Chris Smith giving the keynote address. 25 The number of years ahead Southern Water is planning in its new drought strategy. The strategy, which has just been approved by the government, uses a modelling technique to plan for future droughts.

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