The water treatment plant in Bahr El-Baqar, Egypt, has recently been named by Guinness World Records the world’s largest plant of its kind. Huber Technology supplied 128 Sludge Turner SOLSTICE units for the large-scale project, from which about half a million people will benefit in the future.

The Bahr El-Baqar drainage canal runs from the Egyptian capital Cairo along the Suez Canal through Lake Manzala into the Mediterranean Sea. Partially untreated municipal and industrial wastewater as well as polluted surface water from agriculture have so far led to an ecological imbalance. To solve this problem, the joint venture Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors was awarded the contract to build a water treatment plant for almost 700 million euros in 2018. 

The purification process produces very large quantities of sludge during water treatment. To reduce the amount of sludge to be disposed of, the sludge is dewatered with the help of machines and dried by the fully automatic and solar-powered sludge turners. The 128 Sludge Turner SOLSTICE units dry the sludge produced during water treatment to a quarter in mass and volume and turn it into granules. Depending on their composition, the dry granules can be used as fertilizer or efficient heating medium.

Watch the animation to learn about the function and process of the Sludge Turner SOLSTICE units for the project in Bahr El-Baqar.