Severn Trent Water and its design and construction partner Costain have selected Evoqua Water Technologies’s BioMag® ballasted clarification system to increase output and reduce phosphorus at Severn’s Rugby Sewage Treatment Works in the UK.
Rugby will be Europe’s first wastewater treatment plant with a permanent installation of Evoqua’s ballasted BioMag system settling technology, which has been used in facilities throughout the United States for more than seven years.
The BioMag system will help Severn Trent Water reduce both total suspended solids and phosphorus before the treated water discharges into the River Avon.
The BioMag system uses the addition of magnetite – fully inert, iron ore particles – to enhance the existing activated sludge process. As a result, the settlement across the existing final settlement tanks is greatly improved even with the predicted 25% increase in flow anticipated at the works.
“For Rugby, the new BioMag system will be installed to combat both the new phosphorus limit and the expected increase in the local population, which means that the plant will be able to treat more effluent waste to a better quality,’’ explained Simon Radford, UK sales manager of Evoqua’s Wastewater Treatment business. “As an alternative to adding more Final Settlement Tanks, the BioMag system allows the user to get more out of their existing assets at a fraction of the cost of such major new civil structures.”
Following installation of the BioMag system it is expected that the Rugby plant will process the 25% increase in flow to a predicted 60 000 m3/day by 2028.
