Water reuse: recognition of the Group's strong commitment to a sustainable environment

Water resources are being threatened by climate change, drought, population growth, waste and a growing demand for energy requiring enormous quantities of water. Water reuse is a key to reversing the global threat of water scarcity. It is estimated that globally only 4-8% of wastewater is currently reused. Technology already exists to help utilities and industries close the gap.

SUEZ invests in developing technologies for water reuse. With one of the largest ranges of solutions available and unparalleled domain expertise, SUEZ meets its customers’ needs, building treatment trains based on water source and desirable re-use applications including agriculture, industrial processes, groundwater recharge or direct potable reuse.

Solutions include membrane bioreactors for high-quality effluent in a small footprint, reverse osmosis for removing salinity and inorganic/organic contaminants, electrodialysis reversal for brine challenges or TDS removal, zero liquid discharge for 98% water reuse, ozone and UV to enhance potable reuse, etc.

Two concrete examples

A refinery in Canada was one of the largest consumers of water in the region and produced 2 MGD of wastewater. By implementing a combination of ZeeWeed MBR and High pH RO, the refinery is now able to reuse 100% of its wastewater effluent, most of which is reused in the refinery’s steam plant. This comprehensive solution has reduced the refinery’s reliance on raw water from the city’s aquifer and cut the refinery’s freshwater needs by 28%. This is equivalent to the annual consumption of about 3,100 households in the region.

The local Wastewater Treatment Plant produces recycled water for commercial, industrial and irrigation use. With the capacity to produce 65.5 MGD of recycled water, the largest water recycling facility of its kind in the USA produces five types of water: tertiary water (industrial and irrigation use); nitrified water (industrial cooling towers); secondary treated wastewater purified by micro-filtration, followed by RO and disinfection (groundwater recharge); pure RO Water (refinery low-pressure boiler feed water); and ultra-pure RO Water (refinery high-pressure boiler feed water).

The facility also produces 17.5 MGD of purified water, also known as “barrier water,” that is continuously injected into 153 strategically placed wells to protect the West Coast Groundwater Basin from becoming saline due to seawater intrusion. It also reduces the amount of treated sewage dumped into Santa Monica Bay by five tons a day. Previously, barrier water contained a mixture of recycled water and fresh water imported from Northern California. Now the program has received approval to inject 100% recycled water for this purpose.