Stockholm to Upgrade Wastewater Treatment Plant with MBR Technology

GE (USA) today announced it will provide Stockholm Vatten with membrane bioreactor (MBR) equipment for the Henriksdal municipal wastewater treatment facility to upgrade the existing technology, making it the largest MBR plant in the world. The Henriksdal facility is responsible for treating two thirds of the municipal wastewater for the city of Stockholm, Sweden, and once the upgrade is complete, will process up to 864 million liters of wastewater per day.

The City of Stockholm has one of the fastest growing populations in Europe, and Stockholm Vatten, the city’s water company, was tasked with both expanding the capacity of the facility and producing effluent of higher quality to meet the country’s environmental commitments under the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) and the E.U. Water Directive. The Henriksdal wastewater treatment plant, located in the center of Stockholm, is one of the world’s largest treatment plants located inside rock. With over 18 kilometers of tunnels blasted into the rock structure, this presents a huge challenge to expand the facility in the same relative footprint. These drivers steered Stockholm Vatten to select GE’s LEAPmbr technology as the right solution for the retrofit and upgrade.

“We saw the need to update the current wastewater treatment technology at our Henriksdal facility to meet the demands of a growing population in Stockholm and new environmental requirements set by our governing bodies,” said Gösta Lindh, managing director of Stockholm Vatten. “GE’s LEAPmbr and ZeeWeed technology will help us meet our long-term needs for increased wastewater treatment capacity and will help us do so in a more energy-efficient and cost-effective manner.”

At the core of LEAPmbr is GE’s ZeeWeed 500 membrane, an advanced ultrafiltration technology that separates solids, bacteria and viruses from water or wastewater. More than 1,000 plants worldwide use this technology to produce superior quality water. GE’s ZeeWeed ultrafiltration membranes offer an unmatched combination of performance, energy efficiency, durability, ease of operation and reliability.

“Considering the more stringent effluent requirements for nitrogen and phosphorus removal under the BSAP and E.U. Water Directive, GE’s LEAPmbr technology is the right solution for the Henriksdal retrofit project,” said Yuvbir Singh, general manager, engineered systems—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water. “Looking ahead to future demands on the facility and region, GE’s LEAPmbr technology will give the City of Stockholm the flexibility needed to meet these challenges.”

As part of the contract, GE will be delivering a scope that encompasses the design, supply and servicing of the entire membrane filtration package. The contract will be completed in multiple stages and delivered over a period of four to five years. Design will be completed in 2015 and first shipments will begin in 2016.