An impression of the largest industrialised botanical garden wastewater treatment plant. Photo credit: Nijhuis Industries
Nijhuis Industries is to build the largest industrialised botanical garden wastewater treatment plant, together with its technology partner Organica Water. The project is for the world’s largest furniture retailer, and will treat the wastewater from a high-profile shopping center in Russia.
Nijhuis will integrate the Organica Food Chain Reactor (FCR) in a turn-key 1,000 m3/d treatment facility with Nijhuis pre- and post-treatment including advanced technologies to purify up to river water discharge quality.
Seamless integration of a WWTP in an urban area
The new botanical wastewater treatment plant, with odorless operation and beautiful flora and fauna, is situated in a glass house and ensures the seamless integration of the treatment facility in the urban area within the shopping center complex, including a botanical garden visitors’ center.
The pre-treatment solution is executed with Nijhuis screening and Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) units and will remove the large particles from the wastewater prior to entering the Organica FCR. After the secondary treatment through the FCR, CarboPure (CP) and UV disinfection units (NUV) will polish the effluent to the stringent Russian discharge requirements. The excess sludge will be treated with a Drum Filter (NDF) and Screw Press (NSP).
About the botanical garden solution
A botanical garden is a highly creative approach to wastewater treatment. The garden facility utilises active biofilms on natural(plant) and/or engineered root structures (biomodules), all in a fully-enclosed, odorless facility. The result is a solution which offers a significantly reduced physical footprint and lower operational and infrastructure costs when compared to conventional solutions.
The biological reactors are arranged in a cascade configuration, each with specially designed biomodules, in order to optimize the development of distinct ecosystems in each step of the treatment process. As a result of the cascade design the composition of the ecosystem fixed in the biofilm changes from reactor to reactor, adapting itself to the decreasing nutrient concentrations, and thus maximising the decomposition of contaminants.
A compact, odorless and garden-like facility
Generally, when people think of wastewater treatment, they envision large concrete buildings located far from population centers, and big open basins emitting foul odors. The botanical garden flips this idea upside-down, offering customers a compact, odorless, garden-like facility which produces a high-quality, reusable, effluent. The attractive look and feel of the botanical garden solution further enhances this, as the facility can be used not just as a WWTP but also a scientific, educational, and recreational space for the community. This gives a botanical garden solution utility far beyond just efficient wastewater treatment enabling it to be located virtually anywhere, which is why it was chosen for this critical project.
