dws-vallei-veluwe-grontmij-wwtp-amersfoort-770px-1Waterboard Vallei & Veluwe (WVV) will transform its waste water treatment plant Amersfoort into an Energy- and Nutrient recovery facility with a dominant focus on efficiency and sustainability.

SH+E Group was awarded main contractor for the design, realization and long term maintenance of the Project. SH+E is cooperating closely with the Dutch  consultancy firm Grontmij (design), Hegeman (realization works) and the Canadian firm Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies (nutrient recovery and fertilizer production).

Energy surplus to national power grid
All sludge’s produced by the treatment of wastewater of the communities Amersfoort, Soest, Nijkerk and Woudenberg will be centrally digested at WWTP Amersfoort . By doing this, more biogas will be produced for conversion into 'green electricity'.

The process of digestion will be enhanced with  Thermal Pressure Hydrolysis (TPH), in order to increase the biogas production by 'cracking' the sludge structures under high temperature and pressure.

The green energy produced will be sufficient to treat all the wastewater from the City of Amersfoort (150.000 p.e.) on a 100% energy-autonomous basis.

Furthermore, a surplus of approx. 2,000,000 kWh, which will not be used by the treatment processes, will be supplied to the national power grid. This is substantially sufficient to provide 600 households with green electricity during the year.

dws-vallei-veluwe-grontmij-wwtp-amersfoort-recovery-plant-350pxNutrients become certified fertilizer
The digestion and sludge treatment processes will also produce waste streams that are rich of nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. The project will employ nutrient recovery technology from Ostara to recover and transform these valuable nutrients into an environmentally responsible fertilizer called Crystal Green.

The facility will produce approximately 900 tonnes of high quality fertilizer annually. With applications in the agriculture, turf and horticulture sectors, Crystal Green is European Certified in the category with the highest quality fertilizers.

Maximise recovery from waste water
As main contractor, the SH+E Group will supply and install all processes for treatment of the sludges, thermal pressure hydrolysis (Lysotherm) and the generation of heat and electricity out of the produced biogas.

The project is expected to be completed in 2015, which is an important milestone for the Dutch waterboard in the realization of their ambition to both treat waste water energy autonomously and at the same time maximise recovery of valuable nutrients from processed waste streams.

This news item was originally published on the website of Grontmij.

More information
Waterboard Vallei & Veluwe
Apeldoorn, the Netherlands
+31 55 5 272 911
www.vallei-veluwe.nl (in Dutch)

Grontmij
De Bilt, the Netherlands
+31 30 220 79 11 
www.grontmij.com

Sustec
Wageningen, the Netherlands
+31 317 763 749
www.sustec.nl/sustec.html