Sydney Water chooses Veolia Hydrotech filter technology

Veolia Water Technologies Australia has been awarded a contract for the design, supply and commissioning of 20 Hydrotech drum filters for mechanical primary treatment at two of Sydney Water’s treatment plants — St Marys Water Recycling Plant and Quakers Hill Water Recycling Plant — in New South Wales. The upgrade is part of Sydney Water’s Lower South Creek Treatment Program.

With a move towards energy recovery and energy efficiency in wastewater plant design around the world, the first step of primary separation has become very important for two reasons — a higher TSS removal in the primary step reduces the load on the secondary treatment process (reducing power requirements and operating costs) and increased amounts of primary sludge entering the downstream sludge treatment or biogas recovery stages (such as digestion or thermal hydrolysis) will increase energy recovery.

This project continues the experience Veolia has gained over the last 10 years in utilising Hydrotech drum filters for primary separation. The small footprint technology allows high TSS removal (up to 80% for this project depending on influent wastewater quality) combined with the ability to cope with highly fluctuating flows in terms of both quality and capacity. The high-quality stainless steel Hydrotech filters combined with robust PE filter panels guarantees an efficient, low-maintenance, robust and flexible primary separation step.

Sydney Water is Australia’s largest water and wastewater service provider. Every day, it supplies water, wastewater, recycled water, and some stormwater services to more than five million people in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains regions.