Grundfos receives €1.2m grant from IRIS for new wastewater treatment technology

Denmark-based Grundfos has received a grant of €1.2m to develop a new wastewater filtration process.

The company will receive the grant through the National Research Foundation’s Incentive for Research and Innovation Scheme (IRIS). The technology will be able to clean wastewater by using the sludge from the water itself.

Grundfos will launch the project by the start of next year, the company said.

The firm will manage the project from its innovation centre in Singapore in co-ordination with Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI).

NEWRI executive director Professor Ng Wun Jern said: "We foresee that sludge management will be a major industry requirement and NEWRI’s expertise in water and waste management can contribute to Grundfos’ effort to develop cutting-edge technology in Singapore."

The project, which will continue for two years, will experiment at a treatment plant that discharges wastewater into the ocean.

Grundfos intends to use the filter-cake technology for cleaning wastewater, wherein the sludge itself will work as small-meshed filter that allows clean water to pass through.

Grundfos new concepts project manager Rune Højsholt said: "The filter cake that’s created from the sludge is tight enough to keep impurities back, but still no tighter than the clean water can run through relatively easy.

"The technology therefore uses far less energy for pumping the wastewater than other technologies.

"We expect the new technology to clean the water to a standard where it can be reused for irrigation and in the industry."

Grundfos has tested the new technology in a smaller-scale pilot at a Danish treatment plant.

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Image: Grundfos intends to use the filter-cake technology for cleaning wastewater. Photo: courtesy of GRUNDFOS Holding A/S.