Business Overview 2009 (pdf - 6.8MB) - Veolia Water

Our achievements /
Pushing back the boundaries
of our business
The global economic crisis
and awareness of
sustainable development
challenges are giving rise to
new customer expectations.
In response, Veolia Water is
leveraging its expertise and
sense of innovation to push
back the boundaries of its
activity, while always
seeking to reconcile human
progress with the planet’s
future.
Taking up the energy challenge
All means of energy production require water and vice
versa. In the United States, a third of water withdrawals are
used to produce energy (source: US Department of Energy,
2006). For most clients, given the threat of climate change,
the aim today is to view the issues from an overarching
perspective and to manage the water/energy equation.
In this context, at Veolia Water, we are continuing to make
progress in optimizing our energy production and
consumption. Worldwide, we operate more than a hundred
anaerobic digesters treating wastewater sludge, a
significant part of which can be harnessed to recover the
energy from the biogas. In western France, leading poultry
supplier LDC opted, when renewing its contract in 2009,
to recover the effluent from its production line to produce
biogas. A cogeneration plant is now being built to produce
electricity and heat, which will be sold through
a partnership contract with EDF Energies Nouvelles.
In Madrid, Spain, the country’s largest wastewater
treatment plant, contracted to Veolia Water in 2009,
includes a sludge digester and an associated cogeneration
plant that will generate electricity and produce heat
(18,500 MWh of electricity per year, which is more than half
the plant’s annual consumption).
Veolia Water is in the forefront of energy efficiency
programs in Central Europe. Its subsidiaries in the Czech
Republic and Hungary continually share best practices
to extend the range of operating methods and the portfolio
of technology. For the Budapest, Hungary, contract,
they implemented the Ecrusor® system that recovers
biodegradable liquid after breaking down solid waste,
and significantly boosts biogas production.
The experience acquired in cogeneration in Central Europe
has been key to pushing ahead and designing the energy
self-sufficient wastewater treatment plant. The aim is for
the plant to cover all its energy needs by consuming less,
using technologically optimal processes, like the Amonit
process (see page 22), and by maximizing the production
of biogas. With regard to this latter point, a new two-step
sludge digestion process was patented in March 2009.
Currently at the industrial prototype stage, it should be
operational in 2010.
Contribute to reducing greenhouse gases
Analyzing their own sources of emissions in order to reduce
them has become a central issue for companies, which
will increasingly shift to the use of green technology.
Veolia Water has the resources to help them minimize their
42 Veolia Water 2009