Water re-use - Capturing a waste resource

The east and south-east of England has the lowest rainfall in the UK, water resources are limited and under pressure through increased demand and population growth. In the late 1990's AW Innovation (the AW R&D group) developed a process that could produce high purity water from sewage effluent using membrane technology. In late 1999 Texas Utilities (TXU) signed a contract with Alpheus Environmental for the supply of high purity water for Peterborough Power Station. The novel treatment plant was built in 1999 - 2000 and opened in July 2000 by the Mayor of Peterborough. This paper is a review of the plant design, the technology used for the treatment process and a summary of the first four years of operation. Changing from potable water to high purity water produced from sewage effluent has brought significant benefits for the power station resulting in higher purity steam generation while reducing chemical, power and effluent discharge costs. In addition Anglian Water is now saving 1,000 m(3)/day of potable water.