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The sewage sludge treatment plant of the future is in Hong Kong

It is a beautiful building overlooking Deep Bay in Hong Kong and with its curves it blends into the landscape between the waves and the hills. It's hard to imagine that it’s a sludge treatment plant! Designed by the French architectural firm Claude Vasconi, devised, built and operated by Veolia a few kilometers from the town of Tuen Mun, this plant, named T·PARK ("T" for transformation), processes sludge from eleven sewage treatment plants in a region of over 7 million inhabitants.

It responds to Hong Kong's ambitious policy to improve the management and recovery of waste. We take a quick look…

With a maximum treatment capacity of 2,000 metric tons of sewage sludge per day, T·PARK is the largest facility of its kind in the world. It is also one of the most technologically advanced. Known as "fluidized bed incineration", the heat treatment technology reduces waste by 90%, thereby substantially reducing the volume of sewage sludge to be disposed of. The heat generated during the process is recovered to be transformed into electricity. The 14 MW thus produced is able to supply the entire site, with the remainder going to the public power grid.

When running at full capacity, the plant can produce up to 2 MW of surplus electricity, enough to light up 4,000 homes. In addition, a desalination plant purifies seawater to meet the site’s water needs (it can provide up to 600 m³ of water per day) and in addition rainwater is recovered. The facility achieves zero effluent discharge into the sea through a small wastewater treatment plant that collects, processes and reuses the wastewater produced on site for various uses such as irrigation and cleaning.
 

A multi-purpose facility

But it's not just a plant. With its 7-hectare site and remarkable architecture this innovative facility combines the advanced technologies mentioned above with ecological leisure facilities and educational activities that highlight the benefits of a circular approach to waste management based on energy recovery.

70% green spaces and water, the site includes a recreational and educational center for the general public with a 2,800 m² interactive exhibition space focusing on sludge treatment; a 9,800 m² landscaped ecological garden, home to all the biodiversity Hong Kong Bay has to offer (grebes, kingfishers, water hens, dragonflies and amphibians); and a theater, food court, and spa with three pools heated thanks to the heat recovered during sludge incineration – not to mention a terrace overlooking Deep Bay and Shenzhen...

Photo credits © Veolia- Alexandre Dupeyron