A consortium led by consultancy and engineering firm DHV has won both the jury prize and the prize awarded by the public in this year’s ‘Vernufteling’ competition. The ‘Vernufteling’ prize (a Dutch wordplay on the term ‘ingenuity’) is awarded every year to the most innovative project developed by a Dutch engineering consultancy. According to jury chairman Rudolf Das, DHV’s winning entry simultaneously solves several problems in existing water treatment plants.
Water treatment plants currently use a great deal of energy to remove nitrogen and phosphates from wastewater, without devising new uses for these substances. DHV’s invention makes it possible to reuse both nitrogen and phosphate whilst saving costs and reducing energy consumption.