Brno Waterworks and Sewerage Company (BVK), a joint venture between the City of Brno and SUEZ in which SUEZ holds a 46% stake, has just started the construction of a new sludge treatment line at the Brno – Modřice wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The Brno – Modřice WWTP, owned and operated by BVK, serves more than 400,000 residents of the city of Brno and the surrounding region. It treats 35 million m3 of wastewater per year.

The project includes new buildings and technologies related to the entire process of sludge thickening, anaerobic digestion, dewatering and drying.

This new treatment process will fully harness the energy potential of the sludge to produce biogas and convert it into heat and electricity, covering 65% of the plant’s energy needs. Solar panels will also be set up to cover 5% of the plant’s energy consumption.

In order to improve the recovery of the sludge produced by the wastewater treatment, a new drying process will be applied to significantly reduce its volumes by up to 60%. The dried sludge will be recovered to produce energy for the production of cement by local industries. By treating the sludge on site, the number of truck trips required to transport the sludge from the wastewater treatment plant will be reduced by 60%.

The total cost of the project is € 140 M (CZK 3.5 billion). The financing of the project is secured by long-term bank loans from the European Investment Bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank and Komerční banka a.s.These resources are supplemented by a subsidy from the State Fund for Environmental Protection and SUEZ.

“We are very happy to have laid the foundation stone of this new sludge treatment line for the Brno – Modřice wastewater treatment plant. SUEZ has been operating in Brno for more than 30 years, and this new project is a testament to the solid partnership we have built with the city. With high levels of operational performance, especially network performance and customer satisfaction, and a forward-looking approach, BVK is a benchmark player in water management in Czech Republic. This partnership illustrates SUEZ’s commitment to enabling its customers create value over the entire lifecycle of their assets.” Paul Bourdillon , CEO Europe and Central Asia at SUEZ.