SINGAPORE - A $433 million contract to build a biosolid treatment facility for the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) has been awarded to Sembcorp Design and Construction (SDC).
National water agency PUB said in a statement on Thursday (March 26) that SDC will construct Tuas WRP's energy-efficient biosolids building, digesters and greasy waste receiving facility.
Works will start in April and are due to be completed in 2025.
The contract was awarded to SDC, a wholly owned subsidiary of local construction and property group Chip Eng Seng Corporation, after an open tender exercise in August 2019.
A total of 11 bids were made for the contract.
The new facilities will be integral to joining the operations of Tuas WRP to the National Environment Agency's Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) next to it.
The Tuas WRP and IWMF make up the Tuas Nexus, which will be Singapore's first initiative to combine water and solid waste treatments. It will be able to treat 40 per cent of Singapore's used water and solid waste.
The used water at the Tuas WRP will be digested with the IWMF's food waste to increase biogas that will then be combusted to boost power generation and improve the plant's overall energy efficiency by generating more electricity.
The total amount of electricity generated will be enough to power 300,000 four-room Housing Board units.
Some of this electricity will be used to operate Tuas WRP and IWMF, making them fully energy self-sufficient. The rest will be sold to the grid.
Director of the second phase of the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System at PUB Yong Wei Hin said: "Once completed,Tuas Nexus will set the bar for addressing long-term resource sustainability and climate change."
The Tuas WRP will be the largest facility of its kind in the world, with a capacity of 800,000 cubic meters per day, enough to fill over 300 Olympic-size swimming pools.
It will treat used water channelled by gravity from the western half of Singapore, with the WRPs in Ulu Pandan and Jurong to be progressively phased out.
Another 14 construction tenders for the Tuas WRP will be called over the next two years, including for the construction of the plant's domestic and industrial liquids modules.
