Singapore’s National Water Agency (PUB) and National Environment Agency (NEA) have developed a world-leading, advanced water recycling plant which co-locates a Water Reclamation Plant with an Integrated Waste Management Facility. Individually, these are world-leading facilities, however linking them allows synergies from both systems to benefit the efficiency of the overall system. It is a project that truly investigates the water-energy-food nexus.

​View an illustration of this principle in practice.​

PUB and NEA have developed an advanced water recycling plant, co–located with an Integrated Waste Management Facility. The plant takes in wastewater (used water) from a large portion of Singapore, food waste from around Singapore and passes waste streams from one facility to the other in a mutually beneficial way to produce power and recycled water, whilst reducing the overall waste volume from the systems. This plant is an enabler for resource efficiency across water-energy-food nexus.

As chemical engineers we can innovate by evaluating synergies around our traditional infrastructure development, co-locating systems with synergies rather than thinking of independent facilities.

This inspirational development is one of the most important examples of infrastructure development around the world today and should be used as a template for developments of all scales. It is an example of how chemical engineers can innovate by evaluating synergies around traditional infrastructure development, and how communicating across agencies can make us more efficient.

Find out more about the Integrated Waste Management Facility.