Danish company launches high-tech sewage treatment plant

Denmark's Aquarden Technologies inaugurated on Tuesday a new high-tech sewage plant that sets new standard for the treatment of toxic waste water.

The plant, located some 42 km northwest of Danish capital of Copenhagen, is capable of transforming hazardous industrial waste water into clean water that can be discharged directly to the nature, according to Zhuoyan Cai, founder and director of Aquarden Technologies.

"The purified water can be discharged directly into the environment or reused as process water. In addition, we utilize the heat from the process optimally, so we often end up displaying a positive energy balance," Cai said.

Waterox plant uses the technology of supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) for cleaning the waste water with a variety of substances like hormones, solvents and oils, according to Cai.

SCWO is a process that occurs in water at temperatures and pressures above a mixture's thermodynamic critical point. Under these conditions water becomes a fluid with unique properties that can be used to advantage in the destruction of hazardous wastes.

In Aquarden's system, all hardly-degradable organic pollutants and ammonia are rapidly destroyed in the oxidation process, producing only non-toxic compounds such as water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, according to Cai.

Cai said the plant is the first of its kind in Denmark, and the technology can be widely used at pharmaceutical, chemical and biochemical industries as well as hospitals and landfills to handle with the waste water.

"Aquarden Technologies expects that the new plant will change the way companies are going to handle their problematic waste water," Cai said.

Anders Eldrup, chairman of Denmark's leading green cluster organization CLEAN, said the need for cleaning polluted water is increasing worldwide, and the technology as well as the solutions by Aquarden Technologies have great potential.

"This technology, even though it is pretty new, will do cleaning that can not be done by other technologies." Eldrup said.

He however pointed out the technology and the solutions are yet to be further tested in real life. "If the testing results come out well, I think the world market will be open for this technology."

Cai, a 34-year-old Singaporean who was trained as electrical engineer in the United States, came to Denmark in 2005 to found the company, financed by private funds. He said his company is currently working on three projects that utilize the SCWO-based waste water cleaning solution.

He said the United States and China are two potentially huge markets where there is a great demand for waste water treatment.

He added that he expects his company to become a world leader in sewage treatment in five years. Enditem