From wastewater to potable water: Nuoro and Waterunie build reuse plant in Aalst

08/10/2024

Nuoro has reached an important milestone by winning Farys’ public tender for the innovative water reuse project “Deeper Blue”. After an intensive process that started last summer, the contract was awarded just before summer 2024. The project is being carried out for Waterunie, the joint subsidiary of Farys and De Watergroep, and will be realised at the Aquafin WWTP in Aalst.

Deeper Blue: innovative water reuse

Farys, the drinking water company that, together with De Watergroep, founded Waterunie, has a clear goal with ‘Deeper Blue’: to recover treated wastewater for reuse as drinking water. Aquafin, responsible for wastewater treatment, plays a key role in this. Currently, Aquafin discharges treated water into streams and rivers, causing valuable freshwater to ultimately flow into the sea instead of infiltrating into the ground. This pilot project changes that by producing drinking water from the treated water.

The project involves two innovative techniques:

Aquifer Storage & Recovery (ASR): Excess water is injected into deep groundwater layers during the winter and pumped back up in the summer, creating a natural ‘water battery.’
‘Multi-barrier’ purification process: This process uses membrane filtration, activated carbon filtration and disinfection systems. Monitoring systems control this process and guarantee safe drinking water before it is distributed through the drinking water network.

What's the role for Nuoro?

Nuoro is tasked with designing and building the entire water reuse plant. This plant includes advanced membrane filtration systems, activated carbon filtration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and UV disinfection. Thanks to these techniques, the water can not only be purified but also safely used as drinking water. The cooperation with Waterunie, financed by European funds, will allow it to push technological boundaries and build the infrastructure of the future.

Thomas Aertsen, project manager at Nuoro and the brains behind the design, emphasises:

‘This is a pioneering project for Belgium and a big step towards more sustainable water management.’

Drinking water production will start in spring 2025, with a capacity of 400 million litres per year. Although this represents a small percentage of the total drinking water production in Flanders, the project serves as an important example for further scaling up in the future.

Innovation in water management

Clean water is scarce in Flanders, and global warming will increasingly lead to water shortages. Therefore, we need to arm ourselves for the future. This project is not only unique for Belgium, but also for Nuoro. ‘For industrial customers, we have been building water reuse plants that produce process water of drinking quality from treated wastewater for many years. Producing drinking water for human consumption from sewage water, is a logical next step. We will also replenish the deep groundwater in the “Sokkel” system. This is a crucial step in countering the overexploitation of fossil groundwater in Flanders,’ Aertsen stresses. Bart Degusseme, senior expert Innovation at Waterunie and project leader of Deeper Blue, adds: ‘Deeper Blue is a unique demonstration project with which we want to make our drinking water supply climate-proof and ready for the future. We are facing bigger and longer differences between wet and dry periods. Through source diversification, water reuse and innovative storage, the Flemish drinking water sector shows that we have solutions to tackle these challenges.’

Would you like to know more about this project, or are you curious about how Nuoro can help your organization?