Proceedings

Severn Trent Water were trail blazers for developing anaerobic digestion for treating sewage sludge. We don’t have any coast line so we have always had to look for land based disposal routes. At the start of AMP5, we had digesters spread over forty sites. Our digester fleet varied in age, design and efficiency with single digesters on some sites and no advanced digestion.

In the brave new world of competition and with our commitment to get 100% of our energy from renewable sources by 2030 our assets were just not up for the job. Obviously change on this scale can’t take place overnight.

This paper will describe how we are moving to consolidate our assets and ensure that our operations are as efficient as possible. We have used modelling to determine sludge volumes, tankering routes and contingency plans. We are investing in advanced digestion and additional monitoring. Our MI has improved so that we can see where sludge is, how thick it is and how much it costs us to treat it.

We are also looking forward to AMP8 and beyond with an eye on advanced technologies and looking at the small scale too.