Hubgrade: The Key to Sustainable and Compliant Wastewater Treatment

In today's environmental landscape, wastewater treatment plants face mounting challenges in effectively treating and reusing wastewater. In this blog,  Louis Larsen, European Digital Business Manager, explores how digital solutions can help overcome these challenges and make wastewater treatment plants more sustainable and water-efficient.

Combating modern environmental challenges to ensure the effective treatment and reuse of wastewater has never been more important. However, the critical facilities that provide them face a series of mounting challenges.

Not only does processing capacity need to improve, with the global demand for freshwater projected to exceed supply by 40% when we reach 2030, but the water sector is also under pressure to improve the resilience of supply, decarbonise its operations and control costs for homes and businesses, especially given the October 2022 revision to the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD).

Given the criticality of water and wastewater treatment plants to society, it is vital that they are able to meet rising demands. How exactly can they secure robustly compliant wastewater treatment, optimise efficiency, minimise downtime and reduce operational costs to become more sustainable and more water and energy-efficient in the face of environmental pressures?

Wastewater treatment plant challenges

Without question, digital solutions offer unprecedented opportunities to revolutionise wastewater treatment plants, facilitating the use of real-time control and insights, predictive analytics, and data-driven decision-making to enhance overall operational effectiveness.

However, implementing digital solutions for wastewater treatment plants requires careful planning and a thorough assessment of specific requirements. Plant operators must prioritise finding a digital solution that can effectively support their needs.

This definition will of course vary between different plants. However, at Veolia Water Technologies, we see several key hurdles that are commonly faced by wastewater treatment plants when adopting digital solutions:

• Investments: Where budgets are often restrained in the water industry, every penny counts. Plant managers therefore need solutions that are both cost-effective and don’t require significant upfront investment or high capital expenditure. Such a solution must fit within budget constraints and deliver tangible savings.
• Ease of implementation: the solution should be able to be implemented quickly. It is vital that they are able to meet rising demands while integrating with existing systems easily, without requiring a complicated network of sensors or reams of historical data. 
• Effective results: As well as being easy to operate and implement, any tools must also be effective. Plant managers are looking for a solution that ensures secure and compliant effluent parameters while reducing energy consumption and chemical usage. The system should also provide continuous control and support smooth operation without complicated manual adjustments. 
• Data-backed results: Part of that effectiveness is guaranteeing significant energy and chemical savings. Therefore the solutions must be backed by data and proven results to justify its adoption.
• Readily available support: The pursuit of digital transformation strategies can be daunting. For this reason, tools should be supplemented with access to process expertise and reliable support from knowledgeable experts throughout the implementation and operation of the solution to help maximise the benefits of the technology.

The answer to your challenges: Hubgrade Performance Plant 

To help wastewater treatment plants leverage technology and be compliant, more sustainable and water and energy-efficient in the face of environmental pressures, we’ve developed Hubgrade Performance Plant – a unique remote control, monitoring and optimisation platform.

Hubgrade Performance Plant is a cutting-edge digital real-time process control solution that optimises wastewater treatment plants. Utilising advanced artificial intelligence technology, it gathers real-time data and employs analytics and algorithms that are developed based on our extensive expertise in designing and operating water and wastewater treatment plants all over the world. 

By creating an online digital twin of any wastewater treatment plant and/or sewer network, Hubgrade Performance Plant allows for real-time control and action. It utilises predictive analysis to provide constant insights to operators, process engineers, and management teams, empowering them to make informed decisions and providing them with everything they need to take immediate action to improve wastewater plant performance. This enables a plant to make operational savings and reduce its environmental footprint while increasing hydraulic and biological capacity and complying with environmental regulations.

Critically, Hubgrade Performance Plant is already assisting more than 100 facilities including several major treatment plants across Europe, such as Ede (the Netherlands), Nosedo (Italy) and Klaipeda (Lithuania), while providing several key benefits:

#1 – Ready to use

Hubgrade Performance Plant is a proven and accessible solution that reduces the complexity of managing wastewater treatment processes. 
The platform uses existing sensors and some historical data. Once live, the user-friendly dashboard allows operators to easily monitor system status in real-time and identify abnormalities, enabling quick response and issue resolution.
Moreover, the platform is supported by our technical staff, who can assist users to ensure a smooth process of implementation. 

#2 – Proven savings

Hubgrade Performance Plant also supports those utilities that need to optimise performance in the face of inflation or supply chain-related price pressures. The platform offers energy savings of up to 30% and chemical savings of up to 100% supported by the latest AI-driven optimisation technologies and continuous improvements, providing verifiable data to substantiate the benefits. All water, energy and chemical consumption data can be accessed quickly and easily, minimise resource consumption and optimise the efficiency of installations by up 100% in terms of biological and hydraulic capacity.

Furthermore, we are currently offering an attractive Hubgrade Performance Plant option that provides a compelling alternative to traditional capital-intensive solutions. 

#3 – Expert assistance

Hubgrade Performance Plant provides peace of mind. Not only does the solution automate tasks to alleviate issues stemming from operator shortages. It is also backed by Veolia Water Technologies' expertise, offering operators our comprehensive support and knowledge to facilitate wastewater treatment optimisation, without requiring extensive training or specialised skills. We guarantee a complete and personalised service. Complete, because we take care of everything, from preliminary data analysis to software development/implementation support to technical service - all managed by our teams of expert process, automation and data engineers. 

Now is the time to embrace technology

By embracing digital technologies, wastewater treatment plants will be in an advantageous position, with the best possible conditions to continually fulfil their key role in addressing pivotal environmental challenges while providing safe and clean water to communities.

Hubgrade Performance Plant has been designed to offer a compelling business model that directly supports the needs of municipal and industry players, offering a means of achieving cost-effective, efficient, and controlled wastewater treatment. 

For forward-thinking wastewater treatment managers seeking proven savings, expert support, and a user-friendly approach, it will help to drive process innovation and optimisation to combat modern pressures.

Click here to read more about how digital twin technology can help streamline wastewater treatment plant processes in our whitepaper on the subject.