The contract for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Solar Sludge Drying Plant is in the hands of the Nov Pro Construções, S.A./ Lena Engenharia e Construção, S.A./ SUEZ Treatment Solutions, S.A. consortium, for a total amount of 1,958,000.00 Euros and with a deadline for execution of 355 days, AdA said in a statement.

The public tender was open until 27 January, in a simultaneous design and construction model, that is, with the contractor drawing up the execution project, reads the note from the company that distributes high water to the 16 municipalities in the region.

According to the company, the contract consists of the "construction of an oven for drying sludge," including the system for transporting dehydrated sludge to the oven, the system for removing the oven and transport to the storage shed, the weighing scale and the "integration of the installation in the telemanagement sanitation system" of Águas do Algarve.

In the note, AdA reveals that the facility currently has the capacity to treat "20,965 cubic meters (m3)/day" corresponding to a "maximum population of 58,233 equivalent inhabitants, estimated for the horizon year.

The treatment results annually in "about 3,600 tons of sludge that represent an annual cost of about 121,000 Euros to be sent to a final destination with an average dry matter content of 21 percent," he adds.

Given the high number of sunny days in the Algarve, the company argues that the construction of a solar sludge drying system is favourable to obtaining a significantly higher dryness index, with a reduction in volume, weight and cost of sending the sludge produced at the WWTP to its final destination.

The company also emphasises that the contract work presents added value at environmental level, ensuring both better quality of the sludge produced and a reduction in the number of transports needed to send the sludge to its final destination, with all the positive consequences inherent to this situation.