Balancing Carbon for Energy Recovery and Nutrient Removal for the World's Largest MBR Facility

The 800 ML/d Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) will be the largest membrane bioreactor facility in the world, featuring many advanced treatment technologies and an integrated NEWater facility that produces high-grade water for reuse. The Tuas WRP will be co-located with an Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) which will generate electricity to meet the demand for the co-located facility, making it energy self-sufficient. A key component to energy efficiency is the management of carbon through the treatment process, as it has major impacts on the energy production (through conversion to biogas in the anaerobic digestion process), energy consumption (especially from oxygen demand in the MBR process), and the dependency of carbon to drive biological nutrient removal. Extensive process modelling was completed to inform the design, specifically, incorporating flexibilities to allow for optimizing the degree of carbon re-direction via A-stage primary treatment while achieving effluent goals for NEWater and outfall discharge