September 21, 2016 was a memorable day for both the Frysian Waterboard “Wetterskip Fryslân” and ELIQUO. With a “ground breaking ceremony”, the project moved in its construction phase after concluding the design stage.    

The wastewater treatment facility of Drachten is treating sewage of approx. 100.000 citizens of the City of Drachten (The Netherlands) and direct surroundings. By treating sewage, sludge is being produced. The sewage sludge from WWTP Drachten is being transported to a central sludge dewatering facility at the RWZI Heerenveen.

The existing sludge treatment facilities at the Drachten WWTP will be optimized in order to digest all produced sludge’s prior to their disposal. Therefore Eliquo will install a new sludge thickening facility, upgrade the existing digesters and install a new high efficiency CHP unit. By doing this, approx. 1,1 Million kWh of electricity will be produced, sufficient for more than 50% of the plants own energy consumption.

Driven by more stringent exhaust gas emission requirements, the current gas engine will be decommissioned in December 2016. After that the new energy production and distribution systems will be installed and project completion is expected during the first quarter of 2017.  

ELIQUO conducts this project together with their firm partners, ELJA Beton en Waterbouw,  Damstra Installatie Techniek, Biogas Holland and Water Techniek Twente.