Water & Wastewater Asia January/February 2022

NEWS
NX FILTRATION STARTS PILOT WITH DRINKING
WATER UTILITY WMD IN THE NETHERLANDS
WMD, the drinking water utility of the
province of Drenthe in the Netherlands, has
initiated a pilot project with NX Filtration. The
objective of the pilot project is to test director
nanofiltration (dNF) technology on the removal
of various micropollutants from WMD’s
groundwater sources.
WMD services over 200,000 households and
companies across Drenthe with the supply of
drinking water. Amongst its key initiatives as
part of its 2023 vision, WMD seeks to invest in
new water treatment technologies to remove
an increasing amount of micropollutants from
water derived from groundwater sources.
These pollutions, which include nickel-iron
alloys (Ni/Fe) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic
acid (EDTA), are mostly a result of agricultural
and industrial activities in the second half of
the last century.
Initial lab-scale tests with NX Filtration’s dNF
technology demonstrated “high removal
of Ni/Fe, EDTA and other micropollutants”.
Therefore, WMD now decided to expand its
pilot programme to test dNF technology in
a full-scale setting, based on NX Filtration’s
large scale Mexpert pilot system.
WMD works with NX Filtration on a pilot project
to test dNF technology on the removal of various
micropollutants from WMD’s groundwater sources
Advantages of the dNF technology for WMD
include the one-step treatment setup that
can be applied directly to the source water,
the fact that desirable minerals remain part
of the produced water, and the energy-saving
and chemicals-avoiding characteristics of NX
Filtration’s dNF technology.
The pilot programme is expected to run
from November 2021 to the summer
of 2022.
BLACK & VEATCH’S NUTRIENT REMOVAL
PROJECT STANDS UP TO RECORD CALIFORNIA
WET-WEATHER EVENT
ammonia and most nitrate from the effluent,
addressing concerns of both local and
downstream ecosystem impacts.
When the combination of two weather
phenomena – a bomb cyclone and
atmosphere river – inundated Northern
California with record-breaking rainfall last
October, Sacramento’s biological nutrient
removal (BNR) facility did more than just
weather the storm; it flexed its muscle
in keeping the Sacramento River, and
subsequently the Sacrament-San Joaquin
Delta, clean.
With a maximum capacity of 330 MGD,
the Sacramento Regional Wastewater
Treatment Plant (SRWTP) is one of the largest
BNR projects ever designed by Black &
Veatch, and incorporates some of the latest
advancements in BNR technology.
The BNR facilities were placed fully into
service just before the newly equipped
SRWTP would face its first major test –
when the cyclone and atmospheric river
combined to dump a record 5.44 inches of
rain on the capital city. This was the most
rain Sacramento had been in one 24-hour
period in more than 141 years, and put the
strain on the region’s critical infrastructure,
including wastewater conveyance and
treatment facilities owned and operated by
the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation
District (Regional San).
Willian Yu, senior civil engineer with Regional
San, commented: “This was a gigantic
storm, one that far exceed the ‘100-yearstorm’
event. At one point, there were more
than 500 MGD coming into the wastewater
treatment plant.
“We were able to run the maximum 330
MGD through the treatment plant while
storing the remainder in equalisation basins
for later treatment. The facilities performed
well, demonstrating the necessary flexibility
to handle such an extreme event while
continuing to discharge cleaner effluent into
local waterways.”
Black & Veatch provided planning, design,
construction support and start-up and
commissioning services for the new
BNR facilities. The BNR system relies on
microbial populations within aerobic and
anoxic environments to remove nearly all
The BNR project is a cornerstone project in
the Regional San EchoWater programme,
initiated in 2010 to address stricter effluent
discharge mandates issued by the State
of California. The new BNR facility and
additional tertiary treatment facilities,
designed by others and currently in
construction, will help Regional San to
meet compliance and discharge cleaner
water into the Sacramento River, driving
enhanced environment water quality in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Regional
San also provides recycled water for
potential non-potable reuse.
Sean Goris, project manager for Black &
Veatch, concluded: “Anticipating peak flows
is always a critical design consideration
when building these large-scale wastewater
treatment facilities. We designed the SRWTP
BNR facilities with significant flexibility that
allow operators to bring additional treatment
basins on-line rapidly. As illustrated by
this last event, this flexibility helped fortify
resilience for the utility, Regional San; the
Sacramento community; and the local and
downstream environment.”
WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 15