August 15, 2022 | The United Kingdom’s South Staffs Water, a regulated clean-water company, serving 1.3 million people and 35,000 businesses, is upgrading its Hampton Loade Water Treatment Works using PWNT’s CeraMac® technologies. Once completed in August 2024, it will be the world’s largest ceramic membrane-based water treatment works.

The upgraded Hampton Loade water treatment works, near Bridgnorth in Shropshire, produces 210 MLD and serves up to 700,000 customers. It is the first retrofit of its kind in an existing water treatment works and the largest deployment of ceramic membrane technology in the United Kingdom. Part of a £55M rebuilding and refurbishment project at Hampton Loade water treatment works, it will be based on an innovative and environmentally sustainable ceramic membrane-based water-filtration system using technology provided by PWNT, part of Saur Group’s Industrial Water Solutions (IWS) division.

Enhanced water quality, increased efficiency and reliabilty

With a focus on improving water quality sustainably, specialist engineering service company Ross Shire Engineering (RSE) is working closely with technology solution provider Nijhuis Saur Industries (NSI) UK & Ireland who will deliver the complete water treatment process stream, including the proprietary CeraMac® technology, in partnership with recently acquired PWNT. The CeraMac® technology has already been utilised in full-scale at plants in the UK, Singapore, Switzerland, Scotland and The Netherlands. PWNT’s ceramic membrane-based water-filtration solution will further enhance water quality, increase efficiency and reliability, as well as significantly reduce energy consumption, assisting with the water sector’s ambition to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. The uniquely designed pressure vessels to hold the ceramic membranes are being manufactured by Unidro, also part of Saur’s IWS division.

Andy Willicott, managing director at South Staffs Water, said: “We are really excited about the award of this contract and seeing the innovative improvements that the work will bring. It will ensure our customers continue to receive the high-quality and resilient water supplies they expect and pay for, as well as help us on the road to delivering net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. All this will happen with no disruptions to our customers’ supply of water.”