US based Fluence has won a contract to upgrade Mayan Zvi centralized wastewater treatment plant owned by Israeli water utility company Mayanot Ha-Amakim (MAH).
Fluence will upgrade MAH’s Mayan Zvi (MZ) wastewater treatment plant with its SUBRE technology.
The company claims that the deployment of SUBRE technology will enable compliance with tighter nitrogen discharge rules without the use of any hazardous chemicals and can also increase the plant’s capacity.
SUBRE has been designed by the company as its next generation MABR technology suitable for installation at larger and centrallised traditional treatment plants.
While many of the existing municipal wastewater treatment plants use methanol to meet the tighter nitrogen discharge rules. But, methanol is a hazardous, toxic and flammable liquid and can potentially make site permission complex and lengthy, while adding to the cost.
Fluence’s new technology SUBRE claims to avoid all of these barriers while meeting with the strict discharge requirements.
The MZ wastewater treatment plant was built in 2007 and it has two treatment lines in parallel. These lines have been designed to treat 6000 m3 of wastewater per day.
With the upgrade to SUBRE technology, the MZ plant can increase its capacity between 15 to 20%, or up to 6900 m3 – 7200 m3 per day.
The upgrade can help in reducing the treatment cost per unit volume and improve the plant’s efficiency and compliance with local requirements. The total value of the upgrade is estimated to be $450,000 and will be funded by Israel Water Authority.
MHA CEO Yehuda Sisso and chairmanUri Shmuel in a joint statement said: “We are proud to lead the industry as the first utility to adopt Fluence’s new MABR technology offering – SUBRE.
“We are excited about the value proposition of SUBRE, which we anticipate will enable us to expand the treatment capacity of our existing infrastructure, extend the design period of the plant, enhance energy efficiency and reduce our treatment costs.”
The company anticipates that SUBRE technology can offer huge opportunity for the company as there are thousands of plants around the world which require upgrades. Average cost of full upgrade could be around $4-5m per plant.
Fluence managing director and CEO Henry Charrabé said: “We are excited to collaborate with Mayanot Ha-Amakim on this project. We estimate that Europe alone potentially constitutes a nearly US$2 billion market opportunity for SUBRE, with even larger market potential in the USA and China, as regulations regarding total nitrogen content in treated effluent are becoming much stricter.
“We are already in discussion with some of our China partners regarding SUBRE deployments in China. Therefore, we can leverage our existing MABR strategic partnerships to accelerate growth, expand our product range in China and other global markets and strengthen our position as a provider of multi-faceted water treatment solutions.”
Image: Fluence to implement new SUBRE wastewater treatment technology in Israel. Photo: Courtesy of Business Wire.