As part of utility giant Thames Water’s plans to install thermal hydrolysis (THP) process plants at six of its main sewage works, it has contracted Norwegian firm Cambi to provide its B6-3 unit to site in Crawley.
The signed contract is part of the “Thames Water Crawley STW Enhanced Digestion (Thermal Hydrolysis) Plant Project” from GBMjv, a joint venture between Galliford Try Infrastructure, MWH Treatment and Mott McDonald.
Expected to be ready and tested by early next year, the supplied B6-3 Cambi thermal hydrolysis unit will be placed in front of the two existing 1944 m3 digesters in order to increase capacity to 31 dry tonnes of sludge per day.
THP conditions sludge by heating it up to around 160 degrees Celsius, before entering anaerobic digesters.
Last year Thames Water saved around £15 million off its power bills by generating 14% of its annual energy requirement from sewage. The utility is also aiming to reduce its carbon emissions by 20% by 2015.
Cambi said with its THP units, this will enable Thames Water to import sludge from other nearby plants so that over 1 MW of electrical energy can be produced from the biogas made in the upgraded digesters. The final produced dewatered product can be used for agricultural applications.
In May this year the Norwegian company broke into the Spanish market with a project to supply its THP technolog for the Vigo wastewater development, to handle 22,000 tons of dry solids per year (see WWi story).
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