Bluewater Bio International Concludes Contract With The Ministry Of Works Of The Kingdom Of Bahrain For The Upgrading Of The Tubli Wastewater Treatment Plant Using HYBACS

Wastewater treatment project under plans for Tubli Bay nature reserve

Bluewater Bio International, a global specialist in the treatment of wastewater, has executed a 7.3 million Bahraini Dinar (c. US $20M) contract with the Ministry of Works of the Kingdom of Bahrain ("the Ministry of Works") to upgrade and expand the Tubli wastewater treatment plant, which is the largest of its kind in the country and serves a population equivalent to c. 800,000. Bluewater Bio's patented HYBACS biological treatment process, deploying 42 of its proprietary SMART reactor units, will be installed to treat an average wastewater flow of 100,000 m3/day (equivalent to 303,000 population), significantly improving the quality of the effluent of the plant as a whole. With the ongoing improvements to the sludge treatment facilities, the scheme will also prevent the excessive carry-over of sludge from the treatment plant into Tubli Bay. The project is being funded by the Bahraini Ministry of Finance.

Bluewater Bio has executed the contract with the Ministry of Works through its joint venture, Bluewater Bio ZeroWaste Co W.L.L., which it has established with its local partner, Zero Waste Holding W.L.L.. The turnkey contract relates to the design, construction and operation of the upgraded plant including the manufacturing and installation of 42 SMART units which are Bluewater Bio's proprietary equipment at the core of its HYBACS process. Bluewater Bio ZeroWaste W.L.L. is responsible for all aspects of the project, including detailed engineering design, mechanical, electrical and civil engineering, installation, commissioning, operation and project management. The operating phase will last for one year, immediately following commissioning.

The existing secondary wastewater treatment plant at Tubli was originally designed for a capacity of 200,000 m3/day, however, as a result of the rapid urban development and economic boom in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the plant has become excessively overloaded, causing obvious deterioration in the quality of the treated effluent and in the ecology of Tubli Bay. Following the HYBACS upgrade, which avoids the construction of large biological reactors and clarifiers, the treatment capacity of the overall secondary treatment plant will be 300,000 m3/day.

Daniel Ishag, CEO of Bluewater Bio, commented: "Bluewater Bio is delighted to have been selected by the Bahraini government for the Tubli wastewater treatment plant upgrade. We are very excited to have been chosen for this prestigious wastewater treatment project which will make a major contribution to the environmental regeneration of the area and are looking forward to helping transform Tubli Bay for the residents of Bahrain."

About Bluewater Bio International
Bluewater Bio is the holding company of a group of companies which have developed a cost effective advanced biological solution for the treatment of wastewater. Bluewater Bio is involved at all stages of the process from plant design and costing through to installation, commissioning and training and, when required, the provision of ongoing operation and maintenance. The patented proprietary technology, called HYBACSTM, is gaining acceptance among a growing number of companies both in Europe and in the Middle East as being commercially superior to many existing treatment processes worldwide, across a wide range of treatment requirements. Bluewater Bio's strategy is to focus on selling HYBACS technology to both the municipal treatment sector and to industrial customers and polluters of water. This strategy aims to present customers with cost-effective HYBACS-based treatment and to offer solutions which provide the immediate treatment, capital cost benefits, wastewater reuse potential and also the lifetime operational expenditure benefits of the HYBACS process.

Bluewater Bio's product offering addresses wastewater treatment requirements associated with:

• municipal and domestic wastewater from cities and residential developments;
• upgrading existing sewage treatment plants to meet stricter regulations and legislation;
• wastewater reuse, providing high quality treated effluent for use in agriculture, irrigation, landscaping, and 'greening' initiatives where there is water scarcity, such as the Middle East;
• beverage wastewater from brewers and drink manufacturers;
• food processing wastewater, for example effluent from an abattoir or confectionary plant; and
• leacheate wastewater, which is the fluid which accumulates in landfill sites.

HYBACS is also able to treat efficiently a much wider range of organic industrial wastewaters, including highly concentrated livestock wastewater and the effluent from, among others, textile manufacturers, hospitals and factories.

The HYBACS system is applicable to new and existing works, over a wide range of scale, and has been proven commercially in over 25 applications.

The HYBACS process is an innovative nutrient removal hybrid activated sludge system, which has been developed from the process originating in South Korea. The process consists of two biological stages followed by clarification. The first stage is Bluewater Bio's Shaft Mounted Advanced Reactor Technology (SMARTTM) units, with attached biomass. The second stage is an activated sludge process, which suspended biomass. It has been demonstrated that the HYBACS system can produce effluents with qualities compliant with the most stringent European nutrient removal standards, albeit supplementary dosing may be needed to obtain compliance with the tightest TP standards.

Secondary Wastewater Treatment
Secondary treatment refers to the stage of wastewater treatment involving the substantial removal of the suspended biological content in sewage, and often of inorganic nutrients. Organic matter discharged into receiving water bodies is responsible for pollution, and excessive discharge of inorganic nutrients causes eutrophication, which is the excessive growth of algal matter in the receiving water body which ultimately can kill its entire aquatic ecosystem. Secondary treatment is preceded by primary treatment, which removes larger solids, grits and so forth through screening and settlement, and may be followed by tertiary treatment, involving a variety of additional modular processes to further clean the wastewater following secondary treatment.

SOURCE: Bluewater Bio International