Heat from eau de toilette Utrecht | change company

Heat from waste water can provide 20,000 homes with sustainable heating. The energy goes to the existing heat network, which thus receives a less environmentally harmful form of heat.

The idea is relatively simple: people who shower or bathe flush warm water into a sewer. This, mixed with cold water from the toilet, enters the sewage treatment plant at a relatively high temperature.

Usually that heat is dissipated. Shame, in a transmission where “free” heat is a great advantage. This is how he builds Eneco water installation† This extracts heat (thermal) from water (aqua) via a heat exchanger. Then the temperature works up to 75 degrees; This can be done electrically, using green energy and at a relatively low cost of energy. Water can enter the heat network.

big barrel

To make sure there is always hot water, Eneco also builds an 18 x 18 meter insulated tank upon installation. To move from the sewage treatment plant to the thermal network, a 600-meter pipeline will be built.

For the municipalities of Utrecht and Neugen, it is an important step towards sustainable heat. A large heat pump can serve 15 percent of the heat network connections. Like other cities, Utrecht has different heat plans for different neighborhoods. The heating network is one of them, especially if it can be completely operated on sustainable heat.

Wastewater is sustainable

Wastewater treatment plants gradually became one of the most sustainable places in the Netherlands due to projects like this one. Not only do they recycle the waste water so we can drink it again, they also use the space for solar panels. Products remaining after filtering water are increasingly given a high-quality second life, for example as raw materials in the chemical industry.