Wessex Water waste to energy plant takes water award 23 March 2012

A novel aerobic plant that treats and diverts 10,000 tonne of waste from landfill has won Wessex Water the Institute of Water's first South West Area Innovation Award.

A panel of judges selected the CompAer process as the regional winner to go forward to the National Innovation Awards 2012, which are sponsored by Northumbrian Water.

In brief, Wessex Water treats 475 million litres of sewage from 2.7 million customers every day. As part of the treatment process, it screens and removes material detrimental to the treatment system – some 10,000 tonnes per year of grit, sand, rag, plastics etc, which have historically been moved to landfill.

However, Wessex Water's waste to energy company GENeco, developed a method to treat this waste – known as grit and screenings – and hence the CompAer process.

"CompAer combines a number of techniques to ensure 100% of the material is diverted from landfill," comments Frank Van Der Kleij, South West Area chair and deputy director of Network at Bristol Water.

"There is no other process that does this. As well as diverting 10,000 tonnes of grit and screenings from landfill per annum, there are huge cost savings, and Wessex Water is able to reduce its carbon footprint. These benefits are all replicable nationally," he adds.

"We were determined to find a way of treating the waste at the site as part of our aim of achieving zero waste to landfill by 2020," states Sean Hill, recycling manager at GENeco.

"Thorough our CompAer process, which encourages a natural breakdown of the waste, we are able to use the leftover material for land reclamation projects and the remainder is combusted to generate renewable energy," he explains.

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
GENeco

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