Improving energy efficiency

Saving energy by developing less power-hungry technologies

SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT’s activities require increasing amounts of energy. Water and waste treatment processes are becoming increasingly complex to cope with worsening pollution. Mandatory environmental protection regulations have also grown more stringent in recent years.

To confront these changes, the Group is focusing on developing technologies that are less power-hungry. For example, the teams at Degrémont, a Group subsidiary,  have improved the sludge incineration process . They have created the Thermilys process, which reuses part of the energy released by exhaust gases during incineration to pre-dry the sludge. This technique reduces the energy cost of drying sludge.

Upgrading plants

To improve the energy efficiency of its activities, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT is accelerating the upgrade of its water and waste treatment facilities.

The drinking water production plant at Haworth (United States), which is operated by United Water, was completely refurbished in 2010. Until 2009, it had been using a treatment process consisting of filtration preceded by preozonation. The plant now uses a new ozonation system¹, a novel flotation system² (Aquadaf) and a more efficient chlorination process. The energy demand of these new processes has reduced electricity consumption by 41%.

¹ The addition of ozone to effluent or wastewater for disinfection purposes, for example.

² A method of separating solid particle compounds suspended in a liquid, based on their different densities.