News

This page shows news about activities at Hammarby Sjöstadsverk. Please contact us for more information.

45 million SEK in reusing of wastewater
IVL and ITT W&WW invest 45 million SEK in reusing of wastewater

The shortage of fresh water is a growing problem in many parts of the world. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, together with ITT Water & Wastewater, is therefore investing a total of around 45 million SEK in R&D in order to develop technology for reuse of treated wastewater.

This innovative work will be undertaken at the test- and demonstration facility Hammarby Sjöstadsverk, which is owned by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. A number of different treatment stages and systems will be built, based on best available technologies. They will be further developed in different ways, optimised with a holistic approach and evaluated with the help of life cycle assessment methods.

• "The idea is that we will be able to develop water treatment solutions for municipal wastewater in different parts of the world, to bring the treated water up to water quality levels that make the water suitable for reuse, for example by industry, agriculture, for showering or to flush toilets. Where fresh water is in short supply it is an inexcusable waste to use fresh water for activities that do not require such high water quality." says Östen Ekengren, Executive Vice President, IVL.  

The project, which will initially run for four years, is a so-called jointly financed researched project, with a budget of more than 20 million SEK. In addition, ITT Water & Wastewater will invest more than 25 million SEK in different treatment components, operations, maintenance etc.

• "We are making this huge investment in the Hammarby treatment plant because it makes it possible to undertake pioneering research and development. Since the global need for sustainable and cost-effective solutions is enormous, we hope, of course, that we will be able to successfully export our technologies around the world." says Ulf Arbeus, Director Product Development at ITT Water & Wastewater

The background to the R&D venture between IVL and ITT W & WW is the fact that the global water situation is increasingly critical. Water consumption is growing as a result of increasing population, improved living standards in developing countries and migration into cities. At the same time, the availability of clean, fresh water is becoming more and more limited, as a result of climate change, overexploitation of groundwater and other factors. Furthermore, pollution is limiting the possibility to use surface water.  In some parts of the world, the availability of fresh water is unevenly distributed, which leads to increased water stress and the risk of serious conflicts.

• "There is a huge global need and this is a major export possibility which encompasses everything from system knowledge to technical solutions," says Östen Ekengren.

 
For more information contact:
Östen Ekengren, osten.ekengren@ivl.se, tel: 00 46 (0)8 598 563 43
Ulf Arbeus, ulf.arbeus@itt.com, tel: 00 46 (0)8 475 67 54

ITEST - pilot plant in operation 
The partly EU-funded project ITEST has now started a demonstration plant for enhanced nitrogen removal. The goal is to achieve a more efficient nitrogen removal with reduced power consumption even at low influent temperatures. By using excess heat from, for example district heating return, the temperature of incoming wastewater can be raised and hold at a constant temperature. The higher temperature will make it possible to achieve low nitrogen levels in the effluent even at cold conditions. Especially in northern countries like Sweden this is an important issue. Furthermore, a more effective treatment with reduced power consumption. 

The facility consists of two parallel lines, one of which is conventional and the other with preheating of the incoming wastewater by using the heat of the effluent plus excess heat from various sources. Project manager for the EU LIFE project is the municipality of Oskarshamn while IVL stands for evaluation and technical competence.

The test facility is located at Hammarby Sjöstadsverk and can be visited there. More information is available at www.itestlife.eu. There is also a simulator where you do calculations with their own values and can see the advantages of the solution is for the CHP. 

Here (pdf, 950 kB) you can download a brief project description.

Construction of the ITEST-plant
The facility that consists of two parallel lines for municipal wastewater treatment is currently installed at Sjöstadsverket. Oskarshamn municipality is the project owner, Läckeby water  / Purac stands for the main structure while Emerson AB provides the control and regulation technology. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute will operate the facility which aims to examine how waste heat can be used to increase the efficiency of sewage treatment plants. IVL also provides technical expertise to the project and will also be involved in the evaluation of the technology. It will eventually be possible to look at the plant during guided tours at Sjöstadsverket.

For more information, contact Uwe Fortkamp, uwe.fortkamp@ivl.se.

Sjöstadsverket participates in the reconstruction of Iraq
IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and the Trade Council of the Swedish SymbioCity concept begun a training program for Iraqis in water production and wastewater treatment as part of the reconstruction of infrastructure in Iraq. The initiative for the project was taken by Dr Björling and Gunilla Carlsson.

The program "The Development of Municipal Water Supply and Sanitation in Iraq" began with a week-long visit to Iraq in late July where representatives from IVL, Trade Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated. IVL was responsible for the implementation of two workshops in Baghdad and Basra, with the participation of senior political officials, where necessary, and Swedish expertise was discussed.

In late November, about twenty Iraqis visited including Sjöstadsverket for one week to get more knowledge about sustainable water and wastewater solutions and meet with Swedish companies in the water and wastewater sector.

New Master thesis on deammonification
Hernando, Z. & Martínez, S. (2010). Evaluation of Deammonification process performance for supernatant treatment. (pdf, 3 MB) TRITA LWR Masters Thesis LWR-EX-10-12.

Scholarship for Best Final Thesis
ITT Flygt Scholarship 2009 for Best Final Thesis (40.000 SEK) has been awarded to Jingjing Yang and Andriy Malovanyy for their thesis work "Monitoring, Start-up and
Optimization of One Stage Anammox Process" that has partly been performed at Sjöstadsverket.

Motivation: Jingjing Yang and Andriy Malovanyy have presented well performed and
thoroughly documented experimental research on the novel biologic process for ammonium
removal from wastewater, known as the Anammox process. By using multivariate analysis
typical process parameters have been correlated to the treatment activity. These results help
to build the foundation for future significant energy-savings within wastewater treatment.

New project on greenhouse gas emissions
IVL has together with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), JTI - Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) received a three-year grant from Formas and the The Swedish Water & Wastewater Association (SWWA) to study the formation and distribution of greenhouse gas emissions related to waste water treatment.

Nitrous oxide is formed when nitrogen removal, and also during storage and distribution of the  digested sludge on agricultural land. Methane gas can, except for during digestion where it is wanted, be formed during certain stages of water purification and storage of sludge before spreading. We will first identify the sources at different stages of the chain from water to sludge restored to agricultural land. The project will also compare some alternative treatments and it will suggest methods that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, we will carry out LCA analysis to check the overall environmental impact of the various treatment methods. That says Mats Ek leading IVL's part of the project.  

For more information: Mats Ek, tel: 08-598563 84.

Visit by Poland's ministers for the environment
Poland's Minister of the Environment Prof. Andrzej Kraszewski and his delegation met with representatives of IVL and KTH on Sjöstadsverket. The Minister was shown around the plant and informed about current projects. During the visit, the delegation also discussed how the cooperation between Poland and Sweden could be strengthened with regard to environmental issues.

FlexiClean filter cabinet for stormwater treatment
FlexiClean is a new filter cabinet for the treatment of urban stormwater runoff and drains. The company has now a demonstrator/model of its simple but innovative technology at Hammarby Sjöstadsverk. The technology is currently tested by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

For more information about FlexiCleans technology, advantages, test results and contact information see FlexiCleans homepage: www.flexiclean.eu.

New project: membrandestillation
The project aims to conduct research with respect to the separation and concentration of different polluted waters using membrandestillation. The studies will involve both systems analysis and studies on purification technology, efficiency and energy consumption. The technique has been developed over many years in lab scale level and has been proven to have great potential for certain problems. Xzero is the first company that has developed a full-scale system to be used for research and evaluation. 

The project will evaluate the effectiveness of membrandestillation for various types of polluted water such as arsenic contaminated groundwater, contaminated wastewater with pharmaceuticals, recycling of water from desalination plants, and treatment of certain industrial wastewater. 

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute is the coordinator of the project. Other partners are Xzero and KTH Energy Technology.

For more information please contact us!

New EU Life+ project at Sjöstadsverket
The project aims to demonstrate an innovative technical solution to sewage treatment, based on heat exchange. It is hoped this will solve treatment problems incurred by regions with a cold winter climate: cold weather impedes the effective biological conversion of different nitrogen species to elemental nitrogen, thus contributing to nitrogen-based pollution of lakes and seas.

Within the frame of the project a pilot plant will be placed at Hammarby Sjöstadsverk.

(See also the summary of the project provide by the EU (pdf, 72 kB))

Bengt Hultman received water price 2009
The prize consists of an honorary diploma and a price of SEK 40 000 made available by the Society for Water (Förening VATTEN), SWECO AB and ITT Water & Wastewater Sweden.

Bengt Hultman, Professor Emeritus, KTH Dept. Land and Water Resources Technology has been and is involved in various activities at Hammarby Sjöstadsverk.

The Price Board's reasoning is that Bengt Hultman probably has the most comprehensive understanding of treatment processes in sewage treatment plants in Sweden. For many years he divided his working time between VAV (current Swedish Water & Wastewater Association (SWWA)) and the Royal Institute of Technology, as a technical expert on practical issues and present VA-theorist with a special emphasis on nitrogen removal at KTH. At KTH he built up the technical education, creating new courses. Baltic university became a large part of their training. Bengt was extremely dedicated and wrote a number of course compendiums. He established contacts around the Baltic Sea, especially in Poland. His research in recent years have focused on sludge. He has studied the interaction wastewater treatment - sludge quality, the removal of metals, the best way of using sludge as fertilizer, and perhaps the most scientific attention to the phosphorus can be recovered from the sludge. Bengt's services and broad knowledge has continued utilized frequently by various organizations around Sweden.

Project: Energy & Resource facility
New design goals for wastewater management in a sustainable society
Sweden has a well established and stable technology for wastewater treatment with a good degree of purification. Meanwhile, the recycling of nutrients is relatively low and the process very energy consuming. A new pilot project at Hammarby Sjöstadsverk in cooperation with Kalmar Vatten, Envidan etc. investigates how existing treatment processes can be modified to increase biogas production, reduced the use of chemicals and increased nutrient recovery through the sludge.

Hammarby Sjöstadsverk on water fair
Sjöstadsverket has been represented on the VA-exhibition in Stockholm at Stockholm International Fairs 22-24 September. There were many visitors who wanted to know more about activities at the plant and our collaboration partners.

SSV as part of a new research cluster in Mälardalen
Within the frame of a newly established research cluster, Hammarby Sjöstadsverk has started a collaboration with researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology, Lund University, Mälardalen University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Uppsala University. The cluster also includes a number of municipal water and wastewater organizations in the region. In the near future, the cluster will invite companies in water and wastewater industry to participate. The cluster's core activities are funded by the Swedish Water & Wastewater Association (SWWA) with 6.35 million SEK over three years. The formation of this cluster aims at strengthening research and education in water and sanitation in the region.
More information: http://www.svensktvatten.se/web/forskningskluster.aspx 

Collaboration with Clear Water Energy Nordic AB
Hammarby Sjöstadsverk and CWE Nordic AB have started collaborating in order to test CWE Nordic´s system that uses algae for water treatment and biogas production.   
More information: www.cwenordic.se

Collaboration with Invenntia and Cape Peninsula University of Technology
As part of the project "Optimizing pump systems for energy-efficient waste disposal"  Invenntia and Cape Peninsula University of Technology perform tests to increase the pumping efficiency at Hammarby Sjöstadsverk.

Collaboration with Predect: Online water quality control
Hammarby Sjöstadsverk and Predect have started collaborating and Predect´s first system, Predect 300, is now out in Sjöstadsverket. The system is connected to a treatment line that produces drinking water from municipal wastewater. 
More information: www.predect.se