France-headed global waste and water management company Veolia Group has announced that its subsidiary CFSP has been selected by Le Mans Métropole in the Loire region for the contract for its La Chauvinière wastewater treatment (WWTP) plant. Worth a total of approximately EUR 60 million, the project includes the construction of the new facilities by OTV-Veolia and a nine-year operation term.
Work on the EUR 16.38 million wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) will begin in 2018 for commissioning scheduled at the end of 2020. The anaerobic digester (AD) will enable the La Chauvinière plant to produce biogas which will be upgraded to biomethane and injected into the local gas grid. The amount of biomethane from the plant is estimated to be the equivalent to the volume of gas consumed by one of the city’s buses.
Novel closed-loop applications
Several innovations will be deployed to help make the La Chauvinière plant become a “virtuous model” committed to minimizing the energy consumed by the plant and its facilities. From the Alcion process, the carbon dioxide (CO2) removed from the biogas upgrading is converted into sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) and can be used by the neighbouring waste-to-energy (WTE) facility.
According to Veolia, this will be a first at such a scale for this type of plant. Similarly, the removal of phosphorus – in demand from agriculture – will also be the subject of a specific R&D phase at the plant.
The La Chauvinière WWTP will be entirely managed by an integrated “Hypervision 360” control centre that will use all service data and information to continuously optimise operation and production. The municipal services of Le Mans Métropole will also have direct access to this data and will be able to track key performance indicators (KPIs) transparently and in real time.
The plant will also be a key factor in advancing ecological awareness through a new interactive educational visitor centre. The La Sarthe river flowing past the plant will be the focus of another project to demonstrate how industry and nature can co-exist harmoniously.
Working alongside Le Mans, we will make the La Chauvinière plant a real reference in the water treatment sector. This plant illustrates what tomorrow’s plants will be like, that is, firmly committed to the circular economy, benefiting from excellent service in the forefront of innovation, and delivering remarkable performance, said Frédéric Van Heems, Chief Executive Officer of Water for Veolia in France.
