17,000 people to get water with Bluewater Bio's HYBACS wastewater plant

The project, secured via Bluewater Bio’s licensing agreement with Headstream Water Holdings, was for the extension to the Botleng Sewage Treatment Plant, which was overloaded and in need of additional capacity. The extension, situated alongside the existing Botleng plant, is provided by a new 3,500m³ per day treatment plant in which Bluewater Bio’s patented HYBACS process has been deployed in an installation which includes two of its SMART (Shaft Mounted Advanced Reactor Technology) units, which are fundamental to the process.

The nutrient removal plant treats municipal wastewater with Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), ammonia and Total Phosphorus (TP) concentrations of c. 600mg/l, 45 mg/l and 6 mg/l respectively.

As the new HYBACS plant at Botleng nears the end of its biological commissioning phase, sampling indicates the treated effluent is a very high quality and exceeding the stringent discharge standards required; although the plant is not yet treating the full design load, COD is less than 30mg/l, ammonia concentration is less than 1 mg/l and nitrate concentration less than 4mg/l. TP removal currently exceeds 90 per cent.

The Botleng Wastewater Treatment Plant services the town of Delmas in the Mpumulanga Province.  Delmas lies 60 km east of Johannesburg and has a population of approximately 92,000.  Botleng is one of two wastewater treatment plants (WTPs) in the town, the other being the Delmas town WTP.  These sewage treatment facilities have to produce effluents that comply with the specifications of the relevant authorities, which include nutrient removal.

The HYBACS process is ideally suited to a modular scale up and the new Botleng HYBACS plant has been designed to enable a cost effective second phase extension to 7,000m³ per day, should the additional capacity be required as a result of the rapid expansion of the town. The plant is owned and operated by the Victor Khanye Local Municipality, which has given the capacity expansion at both this and the Delmas town WTP top priority given the continued growth of the town and the municipality’s commitment to providing sanitation services to the community.

The HYBACS process, with its high-quality, modular treatment capability and lower energy consumption, was an ideal solution for the upgrade and expansion of these WTPs to provide the additional capacity needed, and to ensure the plants comply with the required effluent specifications.

Moedi Consulting Engineers, the appointed consulting engineers to the municipality, recognised the advantages of the HYBACS process and specified the process for the upgrade of the Botleng WTP. Marx Jordaan, principal consulting engineer of Moedi Consulting Engineers, said: “We are very impressed with the treatment performance shown so far by the new HYBACS process deployment at the Botleng plant.  As the town of Delmas continues to grow we believe that the HYBACS process presents an ideal potential solution for further cost effective extensions to provide the required additional treatment capacity.”

Daniel Ishag, CEO of Bluewater Bio, said: “We are delighted to have implemented the first deployment of our HYBACS technology in South Africa through our exclusive licensing agreement with Headstream Water Holdings.  We have, in the meantime, secured a second order in the country for a plant which is currently in construction at Swartruggens, a town about 60 miles North West of Johannesburg.  We are working closely with Headstream to secure our third order, also near Johannesburg, along with additional sales prospects in both South Africa and its neighbouring countries. The Company will provide further details on both orders in due course.”

Martie Janse van Rensburg, Non Executive Chairperson of Headstream Water Holdings, commented: “This first deployment of Bluewater Bio’s HYBACS technology in South Africa will be shortly followed by the installation at Swartruggens. We are also confident of securing our third and largest project in Q3 this year.

Headstream Water is seeing a considerable amount of wider market interest and unsolicited enquiries as a result and we anticipate accelerating adoption of Bluewater Bio’s HYBACS technology in the country and surrounding regions.” Ms. Rensburg also serves as Non-Executive Chairperson for Johannesburg Water, the municipal water utility responsible for delivering water and sanitation services to the million people living in the City of Johannesburg.