PUB, Japanese firm open new water recycling and treatment plant in Jurong

National water agency PUB and Japanese firm Meiden Singapore yesterday jointly opened a S$10.3 million demonstration plant capable of treating and recycling industrial used water, in a bid to recover every drop of water used here.

The plant, which is located at Pioneer Road and has a capacity of 4,550 cubic metres per day, can produce non-potable water that can be used by industries on Jurong Island for the purposes of cooling machinery, for example.

This is in contrast to PUB's current practice of treating about 86,000 cubic metres of industrial used water per day to internationally accepted standards before discharging it into the sea.

The plant, the first of its kind in Singapore, combines two technologies — upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and ceramic membrane bioreactor (MBR) — to decompose organic matter in industrial waste water using bacteria before it is further distilled through membranes to become non-potable recycled water.

The agency's Chief Technology Officer Harry Seah said: "Previously, we used the conventional approach where we treat the industrial waste water … to more or less remove the contaminants in the water and after that it is discharged into the sea. But this is a bit of a waste, so with USAB and MBR, we hope to recover every drop of water."

The demonstration plant also saves energy and time, compared to the conventional treatment processes of industrialised used water, said Meiden.

The non-domestic sector accounts for about 55 per cent of Singapore's total water consumption of about 400 million gallons a day and this is expected to increase to 70 per cent in the next 50 years.

The project will serve as a pilot for the future Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, which will be built under Phase Two of the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System to serve the western part of the island.

WOO SIAN BOON