ILCA®

Commissioned by South West Water and officially opened in 2020, the Mayflower Water Treatment Works replaces the aging Crownhill plant in Plymouth. Serving about 250,000 residents , it meets increased urban demand and tightens regulation.

The project introduced a groundbreaking combination of technologies (SIX®, ILCA®, CeraMac®) following a pilot at Crownhill (2013–2015), addressing key challenges such as:

• Delivering a compact, low-footprint footprint design in a constrained site

• Removing dissolved organic carbon (DOC), pesticides, and microorganisms to meet stringent water quality standards

• Reducing chemical usage, energy costs, and operating expenses

• Ensuring reliable long-term operation and automatable performance

Scottish Water commissioned the development of a new modular water treatment facility at Bonnycraig (Peebles) to provide high-quality drinking water for the local area. The project marked Scotland’s first ceramic membrane modular plant, designed and delivered in partnership with RSE and incorporating PWNT technology. It was commissioned in 2022, with the official opening held in 2023.

Key challenges included:

• Delivering a high-performance treatment solution within a limited footprint and an environmentally sensitive landscape.

• Minimizing on-site disruption and emissions by employing an off-site modular construction approach.

• Integrating ceramic membrane filtration technology with essential treatment processes while maintaining long-term sustainability and resilience.

Severn Trent Water launched the Witches Oak project as part of its Green Recovery Programme to secure additional water supply from Witches Oak gravel lakes and the River Trent. The site’s water required enhanced treatment methods to meet stringent drinking water standards.

An 18-month pilot phase, featuring PWNT’s ILCA® and CeraMac® technologies, was conducted at Church Wilne WTW to validate treatment performance under variable raw water conditions, including emerging contaminants. The full-scale plant, with a capacity of 89 MLD, is currently being commissioned.
Pilot operations remain ongoing to evaluate additional treatment parameters, both for the ILCA®/CeraMac® combination, and for the potential future integration of PWNT’s SIX® (Suspended Ion Exchange) technology.

Key challenges addressed by the upgrade included:

• Improving the removal of microbiological and chemical risks, including Cryptosporidium, turbidity events, organic contaminants and nitrates.

• Enhancing resilience to seasonal variations in water quality by treating a blend of rivers Trent and Derwent.

• Meeting sustainability and energy efficiency goals by minimizing reliance on chemical and carbon-intensive treatment processes.