In the NEREUS Pilot Project of ‘De Nieuwe Dokken’ in Ghent, Ducoop will use innovative technologies for decentralized wastewater treatment. 

Residential wastewater

Aerobic membrane bioreactors (aMBR) will be used to process grey water (wastewater from home washing machines, showers, bath tubs… ) and effluent from anaerobic treatment of blackwater and kitchen waste. This will guarantee adequate removal of water pollutants in a decentralized wastewater treatment plant with a small footprint.This allows further downstream processing and water recovery for process water in a nearby industry.

Heat recovery from the wastewater of soap factory

A district heatpump will recover waste heat from the effluent of the wastewater treatment plant. Because of the short process chain between wastewater sources and treatment,  a high performance of heat recovery (COP>4-5) can be achieved, and about 1/3 of the heat demand for sanitary water and central heating can be covered. More-over DuCoop will also use cutting-edge technologies to recover nitrogen fertilizers from the wastewater treatment effluent.

30.000 m³ water

At full deployment, the district will be an example of circular economy with yearly re-use of 30.000 m³ of water (>90% of total consumption), production of over 500 MWh of heat from wastewater and recycling of available nutrients as NPK fertilizer.