Aquabio secures contract with Dairy Crest

Aquabio, specialist in the reuse of industrial water, has been awarded a £3.5 million contract for a wastewater treatment and water reuse plant at Dairy Crest’s Severnside Dairy in Gloucester, UK.

The wastewater plant, which will take 15 months to complete, will treat wastewater discharged to the local watercourse and additional treatment to ultra-pure quality for reuse.

The new plant at Severnside will use Aquabio’s AMBR LE industrial membrane bioreactor (MBR) and is the largest application of its kind in the UK. MBR is a combination of a membrane based filtration process (ultrafiltration) with an aerobic or anaerobic biological reactor. AMBR LE with reverse osmosis (RO) processes produce effluent of a high enough quality to be reused in industrial application, or discharged to stringent watercourse requirements. The advantages of MBR filtration over conventional processes include a small footprint and easy retrofitting and upgrading of existing wastewater treatment plants.

Some 60% of wastewater at the new plant will be treated to potable standards for reuse. The plant will have the capacity to recycle 550 million litres of water per year. This is enough water to supply the daily demands of more than 10,000 people.

The plant will be Aquabio’s largest AMBR LE treatment and reuse plant to date and will bring many benefits to Dairy Crest, including a cost reduction for water supply and effluent discharge, security and sustainability of the water supply and a reduced water footprint.

Aquabio’s managing director, Steve Goodwin, says, “Dairy Crest is making a significant investment at Severnside to improve wastewater quality and water recycling. Aquabio’s 12-year track record of providing large scale water reuse in the UK food and beverage sector, low energy technology and high engineering standards was an important factor in the decision making process and we are extremely proud to be working with Dairy Crest on this project.”

Matt Bardell, Dairy Crest’s group sustainability manager, adds, “This investment will deliver a step change in water abstracted at Severnside. It builds on our previous group wide successes in water efficiency and makes a significant contribution to our longer term corporate commitments.”