Algeciras Wastewater Treatment Plant Uses Innovative Biofiltration Technology

The “Algeciras Wastewater Treatment Plant Consortium” consisting of the plant building company, Inima and the local construction firm,
Contrat, awarded WABAG (Switzerland) an order for the engineering and delivery of key components for a BIOPUR® plant and downstream filtration. The order has a value of around EUR 3 million. The city of Algeciras, which is located on the Straits of Gibraltar, is building the new plant for the treatment ofmunicipal wastewater. The plant will be located in the port of Algeciras, where land has been reclaimed for this purpose. This special initial situation demanded a compact plant design, which in spite of the limited space available would guarantee the required cleaning performance.
“BIOPUR®” biofiltration technology, developed and tested byWABAG,met all these requirements and in addition offered the convincing advantage of comparatively low investment and operating costs, as well as high levels of operational stability in combination with straightforward plant management and maintenance.
The main sections of the plant, consisting of mechanical pre-cleaning, pre-treatment, biofiltration for the nitrogen removal and subsequent deep filtration and UV disinfection, achieve extended cleaning of the wastewater and thus facilitate its subsequent potential reuse as service water, e.g. for street cleaning or irrigation purposes. Naturally, this helps to conserve the limited natural resources of the region.
In addition, wastewater cleaning is linked to sludge treatment with pre-thickening, digestion and dewatering. The discharge values are comparable to those of wastewater treated by means of the membrane bioreactor process, which is currently seen as a guarantee for the attainment of the highest cleaning levels and hence water reuse. The Algeciras wastewater treatment plant will go online in 2010 and clean 51,000 m3 of wastewater per day. It will thus secure environmentally compatible wastewater disposal for around 200,000 inhabitants and make a major contribution to water resource conservation.