United Utilities to install Europe’s largest Nereda plant

Europe’s largest Nereda process plant is set to be built at United Utilities’ wastewater treatment works in Blackburn as part of a £100 million infrastructure upgrade.

United Utilities has awarded a contract to construction partner LiMA and work has already started on the site, which is expected to be fully operational in 2021.

Nerada technology, is an “innovative treatment process” using granular biomass and is already being installed at three of United Utilities wastewater treatment plants in the North West.

The company said the upgrade of its Blackburn site is aimed at improving local watercourses that are tributaries of the River Darwen, which feeds into the River Ribble.

United Utilities said the new plant will be Europe’s largest population equivalent purpose built Nereda technology solution with a volume of 72,000m3.

Richard Ratcliff, engineering delivery director at United Utilities, said: “The installation of the Nereda technology represents a significant and evolutionary step in wastewater treatment technology, it provides the lowest whole life cost solution for Blackburn wastewater treatment works through efficient energy usage and biologically removing phosphorus, thus significantly reducing ferric dosing costs.”

Kieran Brocklebank, head of innovation at United Utilities, added: “We were the first in the UK to invest in a pilot plant for Nereda and we’ve been hard at work testing the process in a number of applications since then.

“Moving away from a conventional process over 100 years old is difficult so we took our time to test Nereda across a broad range of criteria including purchase, running costs, and specific technical parameters.”

In October, this year the company will bring into operation the largest current Nereda plant in the UK, at its Kendal site. United Utilities is currently delivering another two upgrade projects at Morecambe and Failsworth wastewater treatment works.