Siemens to upgrade Chinese wastewater treatment plant

Warrendale, Pa.-based Siemens Water Technologies said today it signed a RMB 42 million ($6.2 million) contract to provide a biological nutrient removal system to Tianjin Capital Environmental Protection Group (SHA:600874) in China.

The system would be used at its Tianjin Xianyang Road Wastewater Treatment Plant in Tianjin, China. It is expected to treat 450,000 cubic meters per day and help improve the effluent discharge standard of the plant.

The project, which was awarded to Siemens after a successful pilot study, is expected to start in April 2010. Financial details were not disclosed.

Tianjin Capital is focused on environmental protection services and road toll collection.

Siemens Water Technologies is a division of Munich, Germany-based Siemens (NYSE:SI), one of the largest electronics and industrial engineering firms in the world.

Siemens has said that water treatment technologies are an important component of its environmental portfolio, which had €19 billion ($27.9 billion) in revenue in 2008, or a quarter of its total revenue (see Siemens expects to boost cleantech revenues).

The Tianjin plant serves about 6,800 hectares (1.1 million acres) and is one of six main drainage systems in the area. The upgrade to the plant is expected to help control pollution on the Hai River.

Siemens said a biological nutrient removal system uses an aerated anoxic reactor, where nitrification and de-nitrification occur at the same time. This is followed by two aerobic reactors that increase the efficiency of nitrogen removal, compared to conventional processes.

The automated process is expected to help reduce the footprint of the biological reaction tank, energy usage as well as costs for the plant. Tianjin Capital also wouldn't have to construct other basins that would be needed with conventional processes.

Earlier this year, Siemens also launched a high-purity water treatment system that has the potential to replace chemically regenerated mixed-bed deionization systems, intended for the power, microelectronics and industrial markets (see Siemens launches chemical-free water deionizer).