Grundfos Awarded $1.4 Million Government Grant for Wastewater Treatment R&D

SINGAPORE (Dec. 4, 2014) – Grundfos has been awarded a S$1.4 million grant by the Singapore Environment and Water Industry Programme Office (EWI) to develop a novel wastewater filtration technology that can significantly reduce capital investment and operational costs for wastewater treatment. The grant comes under the National Research Foundation’s Incentive for Research and Innovation Scheme (IRIS). Administered by EWI, which is led by PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, and various partner agencies, the scheme provides funding support on a competitive basis for research. Besides funding the research and development (R&D), the grant will include a pilot demonstration of the technology upon successful proof of concept. Grundfos’ R&D project will focus on the industrial treatment of wastewater using a unique cake filter made from activated sludge. Activated sludge is the “active ingredient” of a biological wastewater treatment plant, which contains a suspension of bacteria that feed on wastewater impurities, thereby cleaning it. The Grundfos cake filtration technology utilizes the unique physico-chemical properties of this material to construct superior filters on simple supports. Unlike conventional technologies, such as ultrafiltration, which require a lot of energy and maintenance during operation, the cake filtration technology requires little energy as it can operate under the low water pressure generated by gravity. The cake filtration method is illustrated in the four-step process below: Step 1: The cake filter is formed by collecting the activated sludge on a porous support frame. Step 2: The cake filter is treated to deliver hydraulic properties and remove impurities so as to meet the required effluent-discharge standards. Step 3: After treatment, the cake filter is ready to be used to filter secondary effluents from wastewater treatment plants. Step 4: A backwash will easily remove the used filter to make way for a new cake. The cake filtration produces filtrate quality that can be safely discharged into the sea. The effluent discharge standard is comparable to that of membrane filtration, while halving the cost of effluent polishing, which is the removal of impurities from secondary effluent. The filtrate also has the potential to be treated and recycled for irrigation or industrial uses. The R&D will enable the development of a suite of wastewater treatment solutions. The Grundfos Water Innovation Centre in Singapore, headed by Dr. Gao Xin, will be leading this project with support from the Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI), a renowned research institute in the areas of water and environmental technologies. Established in 2012, the Grundfos Water Innovation Centre in Singapore is an extension of Grundfos R&D Centre in Denmark. It collaborates closely with international water experts to develop innovative solutions to address modern water challenges, such as flooding, rainwater capturing and wastewater recycling in Asia. Lars Enevoldsen, group vice president of Grundfos Global Research and Technology, looks forward to taking Grundfos’ research on the cake filtration technology to its next level as a cost-effective solution for the treatment and reuse of wastewater. “The cake filtration project relies strongly on precise and controlled pumping of water and sludge, and will offer a good study platform on the optimization of cost and energy use in pumping operations,” Enevoldsen said. “I’m confident we will set new research benchmarks in both Denmark and Singapore through this collaboration.” Okay Barutçu, regional managing director of Grundfos Asia Pacific, expressed that Grundfos has been addressing the world’s water challenges as a major technology and solutions provider, in addition to being a pump company. “Pumps, of course, play a vital role in the transportation and treatment of water today, but pumps also account for 10 percent of the world’s electricity consumption,” Barutçu said. “We are developing new technologies, which will not only improve the responsible use of water, but at the same time, greatly optimize the cost and energy consumption of recycling water. We are proud to be partnering with PUB and NEWRI in this important project.” Ng Wun Jern, executive director of NEWRI, said research collaboration with companies such as Grundfos would allow research to move beyond the generation of knowledge and apply as valuable industry solutions. “We foresee that sludge management will be a major industry requirement, and NEWRI’s expertise in water and waste management can contribute to Grundfos’ effort to develop cutting-edge technology in Singapore,” Wun Jern said. Grundfos is a Danish pump manufacturer, offering a full-range of optimized water solutions with modular, energy-efficient and intelligent products and services that can be tailored for industrial, water utility, water supply as well urban and agricultural applications.