Mitsubishi to develop testing facility for Singapore PUB’s future Tuas WRP

Mitsubishi will be developing a demonstration-scale Integrated Validation Plant for Singapore’s national water agency Public Utilities Board (PUB) for testing technologies that are likely to be implemented at the future Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (WRP).

In a joint statement, the firms said: "The technologies are aimed at enhancing cost savings and energy efficiency of the used water treatment process at Tuas WRP."

PUB intends to use the demo-scale facility to check the efficiency of the new process innovations which have been planned to be installed for the water reclamation plant.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Asia Pacific (MHI-AP) is expected to complete construction of the demonstration facility by 2017.

The facility will be located within PUB’s Ulu Pandan WRP and will have a capacity of 12,500m³ a day.

The demo plant will be fully automated in order to bring down manpower required for its operations. It will also be used as a training platform for the operators and for validating the parameters for optimum used water treatment.

It will be helpful for setting up the planned Tuas WRP which will be incorporating the tested technologies to improve its energy efficiency and manpower requirements.

Tuas WRP has been designed as an integral part of the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) Phase 2, which is a superhighway for the collection, treatment, disposal and reclamation of used water. The second phase is aimed to extend the DTSS in order to reach out to the western parts of the island.

PUB chief technology officer Harry Seah said: "The treatment and subsequent reclamation of used water is a cornerstone in ensuring a sustainable supply of water for Singapore.

"The demonstration plant is a living model of the future Tuas WRP to allow us to test and validate the new technologies that will eventually be used at the Tuas WRP.

"These new and tested technologies will enable Tuas WRP to be more eco-friendly, produce less sludge and have the capability of producing more bio-gas for power, while consuming lesser energy than conventional plants."

MHI-AP will be coordinating with Mitsubishi for engineering support during the construction of the project as well as for its commissioning and operational phase. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Technology & Innovation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Mechatronics Systems (MHI-MS) will also be assisting in the demo facility development.

---

Image: Changi WRP is part of the S$3.65bn (nearly $3bn) deep tunnel sewerage system (DTSS). Photo: courtesy of ABB Group.