Achieving cost-effective and sustainable

wastewater treatment using Nereda®

INTRODUCTION Nereda® is Royal HaskoningDHV’s
Struan Robertson Aerobic granular sludge has been devel- patented treatment technology that
Civil Engineer
oped as an alternative to the activated utilises aerobic granular sludge and
Royal HaskoningDHV
[email protected] sludge systems that are commonly applied has been used at full-scale for more
for municipal and industrial wastewater than ten years in industrial wastewater
treatment worldwide (including in South treatment. The Nereda® solution for
Africa). Activated sludge systems use floc- municipal wastewater treatment was
Joana Doutor culent biomass which has relatively low developed through a collaborative public-
Water and Wastewater Process Engineer settleability, necessitating large secondary private partnership involving Dutch
Royal HaskoningDHV
settling tanks and low reactor biomass wastewater treatment stakeholders, the
[email protected]
concentrations (3–5 gMLSS/ℓ). In turn, Delft University of Technology in the
activated sludge systems have a significant Netherlands, various treatment plant end-
footprint (space requirement) and require users/operators such as the Overstrand
Bert Bakker a relatively large energy input (aeration and Stellenbosch Municipalities in South
Market Segment Leader
Water and Wastewater Treatment and recycle pumping). In contrast aerobic Africa and Royal HaskoningDHV. The
Royal HaskoningDHV granular sludge comprises more compact Nereda® technology consists of a cyclical
[email protected] and dense bio-granules that result in im- process with three main cycle phases,
proved sludge settling characteristics (up namely: simultaneous fi ll and draw, aera-
to > 10 m/h). Aerobic granular sludge is tion/reaction and settling. The aerobic
Sean Pols formed by applying specific process condi- granules formed have excellent settling
Civil Engineering Technologist tions that favour slow-growing organisms properties, allowing for higher biomass
Royal HaskoningDHV such as PAOs (polyphosphate-accumu- concentrations (8 gMLSS/ℓ), the non-use
[email protected]
lating organisms) and GAOs (glycogen- of secondary clarifiers and the exclusion
accumulating organisms), and suppression of major sludge recycle pumping in the
of the growth of flocculent biomass, Nereda® system. The result is a compact,
together with selective wasting whereby simple system that requires significantly
slow-settling floc-like sludge is discharged less chemicals and energy, but critically
and faster-settling biomass is retained. is able to match or better the effluent
quality achieved by any activated sludge
system, i.e. Nereda® is a technology that
can achieve sustainable and cost-effective
wastewater treatment.
The world’s first municipal demonstra-
tion Nereda® treatment system (5 Mℓ/d)
was built at the Gansbaai Wastewater
Treatment Plant (WWTP) for the
Overstrand Municipality in the Western
Cape, with the plant being commissioned
in 2009. The Gansbaai Nereda® project was
awarded the prestigious SAICE National
Award for Technical Excellence in Civil
Engineering in 2009, and the treatment
plant was awarded Green Drop status
in 2013. Following the realisation of the
Gansbaai Nereda®, the technology has
been successfully utilised at numerous
municipal and industrial WWTPs across
the world, and this article provides an
Figure 1: Nereda® sludge settling (left) compared to activated sludge (right)
update on the status of the system, pro-

56 June 2015 Civil Engineering

files the recently commissioned Nereda® phase, including plants with capaci- opportunities for Nereda® waste sludge,
treatment plant at Wemmershoek (close ties exceeding 1 million PE (population thereby further enhancing the Nereda®
to Franschhoek), and describes how the equivalents) or 100 Mℓ/d. Exponential system’s sustainability credentials.
technology can be used to achieve cost- growth in the number of full-scale plants Several Nereda® plant configurations
effective and sustainable wastewater treat- is occurring, with this trend expected to have been developed to meet the full
ment moving forward. continue. The operational full-scale plants spectrum of wastewater treatment sce-
have all met effluent requirements whilst narios experienced from site to site and
NEREDA® UPDATE achieving system space savings, and lower from country to country. The main plant
To date more than twenty full-scale chemical and energy use when compared configurations or approaches are detailed
municipal and industrial Nereda® plants to similarly loaded activated sludge sys- in Table 1.
are in operation or under construc- tems – i.e. more sustainable wastewater In the Netherlands and Portugal,
tion in South Africa, Portugal, Poland, treatment. Furthermore, a new possibility Nereda® plants have been built parallel
Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia, the for extracting alginate-like polymers from to existing activated sludge systems, and
Netherlands and Brazil. Further Nereda® aerobic granular sludge has emerged, this has facilitated long-term studies on
plants are in the planning and design which could provide interesting reuse energy usage, plant footprint, activated

performance
applications

Nereda® line

Nereda® line
sites; exten-

sites; exten-

optimisation

with optimal
isting plants

isting plants

sites; space
with parallel

with parallel

isting infra-

constraints

increase or
extension /
Potential

Brownfield

Brownfield
sion to ex-

sion to ex-
Greenfield

Greenfield

/ capacity
use of ex-

or budget
scenarios

improved
structure

required
sites;
Scalable for ap- Epe WWTP (Netherlands)

Frielas WWTP (Portugal)

Wemmershoek WWTP

Vroomshoop WWTP
Reference
examples

(South Africa)

(Netherlands)
(2 reactors vs 3)

way to increase

improve perfor-
treatment chal-
1 reactor fed at all plication to the
world’s largest

system perfor-

Cost-effective
Advantages

using existing
mance / opti-

infrastructure

infrastructure
Improve acti-

mance whilst
mise existing

capacity and
vated sludge
investments
Optimised
lenges

between feeds to

Waste Nereda®
Attributes

tivated sludge

infrastructure
sludge to ac-
Buffer stores

Use existing
reactors
At least

system
times

Nereda
ST
N
N

N
N
N
N

CAS
B
Typical layout

CAS
SBR
or
Nereda® reactors

activated sludge

Convert existing
SBR / activated
– connected to

or any suitable
sludge reactor
Table 1: Nereda® configurations

existing tank
3 reactors

2 reactors
1 buffer +

1 or more

system
configura-

lowed by X
Nereda®

Buffer fol-
reactors

reactors
tion

Retrofit
Hybrid
3*X
No

Civil Engineering June 2015 57

 Table 2: Energy use and nutrient removal performance at Nereda® treatment systems in sludge settleability improvements and
the Netherlands with long-term monitoring
effluent quality. Table 2 provides some
Treatment Energy use Nutrient removal
pertinent results regarding energy usage
Reference and effluent quality from independent
plant (relative to pollution load treated) performance
(non-Royal HaskoningDHV) sources.
Epe Performance monitoring in Average effluent STOWA Based on experience from treatment
2012 showed 40% lower energy (March–May 2014): plants built to date, it is clear that Nereda®
consumption than activated TN = 4 mgN/ℓ can achieve the following performance
sludge treatment systems in the NH4-N = 0.1 mgN/ℓ when compared to any similarly loaded
Netherlands with similar tertiary TP = 0.3 mgP/ℓ activated sludge system:
treatment (sand filters) ■ Plant footprint: 50–75% reduction
Garmerwolde Energy consumption of the 2014 monitoring – Waterschap ■ Energy usage: 20–45% lower
Nereda® installation (including met effluent require- Vallei and ■ COD removal: equal or better
intermediate pumping) was con- ments of: Veluwe ■ Biological nutrient removal
sistently more than 40% lower TP < 1 mgP/ℓ (nitrogen and phosphorus): equal/better
than the energy consumption of TN < 7 mgN/ℓ ■ Simplicity of operation: better
the parallel activated sludge (AB) Nereda® allows for optimal simultaneous
system in 2014 phosphorous and nitrogen removal in a
Vroomshoop Monitoring at Vroomshoop Average effluent Waterschap single reactor.
(June–November 2014) showed (2014): Vechtstromen
the Nereda® side of the treat- TN = 7.2 mgN/ℓ WEMMERSHOEK WWTP
ment plant used approximately TP = 0.9 mgP/ℓ In 2010 the Stellenbosch Municipality
35% less energy than the acti- Ortho-P = 0.6 mgP/ℓ decided to centralise wastewater treat-
vated sludge side ment for the Franschhoek area by
decommissioning two existing treat-
ment plants (Franschhoek and La Motte
WWTPs) and treating all wastewater at
the Wemmershoek WWTP. To realise a
cost-effective centralisation of treatment
capacity a new 5 Mℓ/d treatment system
was required at the Wemmershoek works.
The Franshhoek area falls within the
sensitive Berg River catchment which
meant stringent effluent requirements.
Royal HaskoningDHV proposed the
Nereda® technology and effluent reuse as
a cost-effective and sustainable means
to meet the project requirements. By
Figure 2: Nereda® reactor at Wemmershoek discharging effluent utilising Nereda® and partial effluent reuse
(irrigation) the need for extensive tertiary
Table 3: Wemmershoek WWTP design details treatment to meet expected future (even
Design component Unit Wemmershoek design more stringent) standards was not re-
Primary treatment - Screening and grit removal quired. Details of the treatment plant are
Secondary treatment - 1 x 600 m3 Nereda® Influent Buffer provided in Table 3.
2 x 1 800 m³ Nereda® reactors The new 5 Mℓ/d system was commis-
Tertiary treatment - Chlorine disinfection, maturation pond sioned in August 2014 and, following the
Sludge treatment - Mechanical thickening and dewatering development of granular sludge, the treat-
Average Dry Weather Flow Mℓ/d 5 ment plant is producing excellent effluent
Peak Wet Weather Flow Mℓ/d 14.4 quality (well below requirements) – see
Effluent discharge - Discharge to Berg River and reuse for Table 4 for recent effluent results.
irrigation The data presented in Table 4 is
(pumped to Franschhoek) based on average effluent results from
Influent characteristics - Design (actual) March to April, independently verified
COD mgCOD/ℓ 870 (796) by an external laboratory (CSIR). The
Total Kjeldahl nitrogen mgTKN-N/ℓ 60 Wemmershoek treatment plant has a dis-
Ammonium mgNH4-N/ℓ 45 (79) charge limit of 10 mgPO4 -P/ℓ. Although
Nitrate mgNO3-N/ℓ - the phosphorus concentrations in the
Total phosphorus mgP/ℓ 12 (11.7) final effluent are well below this limit,
Ortho-phosphate mgPO4-P/ℓ - (8.6) the process control has not yet been fully
Suspended solids mgTSS/ℓ - (381) optimised for biological phosphorus

58 June 2015 Civil Engineering

 removal. If optimal Nereda® biological LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE stringent effluent requirements to safe-
phosphorus removal is implemented, ef- In February 2015, WEC Projects won a guard water resources, a funding shortfall
fluent ortho-phosphate concentrations design-build tender to provide a 5 Mℓ/d for capacity expansion and operations,
below 0.9 mgPO4 -P/ℓ could be achieved capacity improvement at ERWAT’s ageing treatment infrastructure, as well as
without chemical dosing (concentrations Hartebeestfontein WWTP (Ekurhuleni). pressure to adapt towards sustainability
of 1.5 mg/ℓ, 0.6 mg/ℓ and 1.2 mg/ℓ were Royal HaskoningDHV will provide their goals such as effluent reuse and limiting
achieved during March 2015, giving a Nereda® technology to WEC for the pro- energy usage for treatment. Nereda® is a
clear indication of the potential). ject, which primarily comprises the con- proven, innovative and robust wastewater
The Berg River Improvement Plan version of two existing, disused tanks into treatment technology that is ready for
(BRIP) was developed in 2012 by the a Nereda® influent buffer tank (1 700 m3) further widespread roll-out as a means
Western Cape provincial government, the and Nereda® reactor (2 900 m3) capable to reduce capital and operational costs,
Department of Water Affairs and local of treating 5 Mℓ/d. This project shows and meet sustainability targets such as
stakeholders. The main aims of the BRIP the versatility of Nereda®, and all involved reducing energy usage, whilst achieving
are the sound management of this sensi- stakeholders are excited about the im- excellent effluent quality – indeed a solu-
tive catchment and the improvement of minent delivery of the first Nereda® in tion to address the challenges facing the
the water quality. The Wemmershoek Gauteng via the cost-effective conversion wastewater treatment industry.
WWTP project is positively contributing of two existing tanks.
to achieving the BRIP’s goals by limiting Global strategic planning is currently The wastewater treatment
pollution loads from the Franschhoek being redirected by sustainability issues
area. This is an example of how innovative which are necessitated by environmental industry in South Africa is
wastewater treatment solutions (Nereda®), and societal demands to adapt to key facing numerous challenges,
in conjunction with exceptional municipal challenges such as energy generation
operations and management (Stellenbosch and provision, water scarcity and global including stringent
Municipality), can fit into broader integrated warming. Furthermore, the wastewater
effluent requirements to
water resource management, as envisaged treatment industry in South Africa is
by South Africa’s National Water Act (2008). facing numerous challenges, including safeguard water resources,
Table 4: Effluent quality at Wemmershoek WWTP a funding shortfall for
Parameter Unit Average CSIR lab Effluent requirement capacity expansion and
results – (general limit)
final effluent operations, ageing treatment
COD mgCOD/ℓ 48.0 < 75 infrastructure, as well as
Ammonium mgNH4-N/ℓ 0.3 <6
pressure to adapt towards
Nitrate mgNO3-N/ℓ 0.1 < 15
Nitrite mgNO2-N/ℓ 0.1 -
sustainability goals such as
Total phosphorus mgP/ℓ 2.6 - effluent reuse and limiting
Ortho-phosphate mgPO4-P/ℓ 2.3 < 10 energy usage for treatment.
Civil Engineering June 2015 59

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