Heathrow Hits Environmental Milestone
VWT UK has completed a pioneering glycol removal plant at Heathrow Airport
Veolia Water Technologies UK (VWT UK) has completed a pioneering glycol removal plant at Heathrow Airport, the first of its kind to treat glycol in this application in the UK.
VWT UK was awarded this project due to it's many year providing innovative and bespoke solutions to solve the needs of any plant with our team of experienced professionals.
Heathrow needed a biological wastewater treatment plant to treat the glycol runoff from the airport runways prior to its discharge into the river Crane. Glycol is an organic compound, most commonly found in antifreeze solutions, like de-icer. The solution is frequently used during winter months to de-ice aeroplanes, eventually making its way into wastewater run-offs. Unfortunately, even when diluted, glycol can still pose a toxic threat, which is why Heathrow Airport wanted to remove it completely from its wastewater discharge.
Our Solution
So how does the new wastewater treatment plant work? To begin with, the innovative glycol removal plant takes water from a runway collection lagoon and processes it, before discharging it into a separate four-part clean water lagoon. Once this process is completed, the wastewater is safe to be released into the nearby River Crane, a tributary of the River Thames.
The pioneering technology functions as an aerobic wastewater treatment method and includes an AnoxKaldnes™ Moving Bed Biological Reactor (MBBR), Hydrotech Discfilter, drum thickener, chemical conditioning and sludge treatment. VWT UK was selected to design, supply, install, commission and operate the plant. This means that the leading provider of water treatment technologies and services will continue to operate the new plant for the next nine-years - having secured a further operations contract which began in December 2019.
MBBR TANKS
The new glycol removal plant catches the runway run off water and feeds it into two MBBR tanks
The tanks are filled with patented Active Biofilm Carriers, which are covered in bacteria that can break down any organic material in water.
POLYMERS & COAGULANTS
720,000 litres of water is processed every hour.
The water is dosed with a coagulant and polymer so that any particles can be easily filtered.
HYDROTECH DISCFILTER
The water is fed through a HYDROTECH DISCFILTER to separate the solid particles from the treated water.
The treated water is returned into the segregated collections lagoon. From here it flows into the river crane without causing any effect to the environment.
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