CeraMac®

The Andijk III Water Treatment Plant was designed to treat 120 million liters of surface water per day from the IJsselmeer. The project was commissioned by PWN, the drinking water utility of North Holland, and was driven by the need for a more sustainable and effective pre-treatment system to ensure high water quality while reducing environmental impact and energy consumption.

In operation since 2014, the plant required the integration of advanced technologies to:

• Remove a wide range of trace contaminants, including dissolved organic carbon, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides.

• Minimize reliance on chemicals and reduce the environmental and operational footprint.

• Ensure the system’s long-term reliability, scalability, and compatibility with existing and future infrastructure.

The Quellwasserwerk Sonnenberg is a spring water treatment plant commissioned by ewl (energie wasser luzern) and started operation in 2018. The plant’s purpose is to increase the proportion of spring water in Lucerne’s drinking water supply from approximately 12% to about 50%, improving water quality and sustainability.

The project faced these main challenges:

• Utilizing the natural spring water sources while preserving water quality and ecosystem balance.

• Minimizing energy consumption by using gravity-fed water flows, limiting the need for mechanical pumping.

• Designing a treatment process that maintains the natural water quality, removing turbidity and contaminants without chemical additives.

• Ensuring reliability and long-term operational sustainability.

— AWARD: GWI Global Water Awards 2020 Water Project of the Year —

The Choa Chu Kang Waterworks (CCKWW) upgrade was commissioned by PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, as part of a strategic effort to implement innovative technologies in large-scale water treatment. Officially opened in 2019, the project followed an 18-month pilot phase that validated the performance of ceramic membrane filtration and ozone pre-treatment under local conditions.

This initiative aimed to:

• Integrate the world’s largest ceramic membrane filtration system into an operational treatment facility

• Mitigate membrane fouling challenges through the use of ozone oxidation

• Enhance long-term resilience to variable raw water quality and climate impacts

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.

Hampton Loade Water Treatment Works, operated by South Staffordshire Water, underwent a major upgrade to improve water quality and address risks identified by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). The site required modernization to maintain compliance with increasingly stringent regulations and to continue supplying safe drinking water to a large portion of the West Midlands region.

This project aimed to:

• Improve protection against microbiological risks: The existing process was not consistently removing pathogens such as Clostridium perfringens and Cryptosporidium, raising concerns over the safety of the supply.

• Address aesthetic issues in treated water: Customers had experienced incidents related to taste, odor, and discoloration, linked to insufficient removal of natural organic matter.

• Enhance resilience under varying raw water conditions: Seasonal changes and weather events caused fluctuations in turbidity and contaminant levels, challenging the plant’s ability to deliver consistent water quality.

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.