Yorkshire Water project will add gas to AD process economics

Bradford, UK – Eco-Solids International (ESI) is about to commission its first commercial Cellruptor installation, where a potentially large increase in gas generation at Yorkshire Water’s Esholt WWTW near Bradford will be evaluated.

The technology is designed to increase gas yield by up to 40% from surplus activated sludge, or 12% from the total sludge stream, said ESI - which is also working with Barhale on the Esholt WWTW project.

The treatment process, which is said to have low energy and pressure requirements, makes secondary activated sludge (SAS) more receptive to digestion.

“We are all looking forward to seeing the data from our first Cellruptor installation in the UK and the anticipated wider roll-out of this technology,” said Clive Rigden, managing director of ESI. “Water companies and AD operators will soon see results that will be impossible to ignore.”

According to ESI, Cellruptor units can be retrofitted into existing digestion facilities as well as green field sites.  Installations, it added, involve lower capital and maintenance costs than other gas yield-enhancement technologies.

The cell-disintegration technology improves the reduction of volatile solids to increase overall gas generation - without introducing additional large energy requirements or complex operational process equipment.

Cellruptor is also said to have a relatively small foot print and can be skid-mounted, making it suitable for retro-fitting into existing AD/CHP facilities.

The process equipment is scalable to meet SAS volume demand and can be operated in continuous or batch process modes to suit the operators’ specific AD plant requirements.

The reduction in volatile solids means less digested sludge to be stored, transported and disposed of, enabling additional operational savings to be made and increased throughput and efficiency of the treatment works.