Artelia to carry out design study for Montreal’s largest green infrastructure project

The Jean-R. Marcotte station has a peak capacity of over 7,250,000 m³/d (84^m3/s) and is one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the world. The station produces 2,500,000 tonnes of liquid sludge per year, which is currently dewatered prior to incineration. The four existing incinerators are at the end of their useful lives and represent a major source of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Ultimately, the implementation of the UTVB will make it possible to balance the station’s energy footprint, by minimizing the use of fossil fuels, while maximizing the quantity of recovered materials and considerably reducing the station’s GHG emissions. This makes the project the largest green infrastructure project in Montreal.

Biomethanization to produce green energy

This major contract, won by our Water Treatment team in collaboration with partner firms, involves the design of facilities to replace existing multi-fuel incinerators. The UTVB will offer a combination of high-performance technologies, including biomethanization to generate biogas that will be purified and injected into the Energir network. Indeed, the proposed hybrid solution combines fluidized bed incineration for part of the sludge, and anaerobic digestion and drying for the other part. It’s an excellent compromise in terms of technical and economic feasibility, with interesting revenue potential for the city thanks to the injection of purified biogas (biomethane) into the gas network.

Our mandate includes the following objectives: optimizing the proposed concepts considering the future addition of a biological treatment to the liquid treatment line, maximizing the quality of biosolids for agricultural valorization, and presenting a positive energy balance.

A promising project that will enable Artelia and its partners to capitalize on their unique expertise in sludge management and green energy production.