The Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) has been recycling wastewater for non‐drinking uses since the 1960s. Not one to waste resources, IRWD advanced its recycling story with a new Biosolids and Energy Recovery Facility designed by Black & Veatch.
Protecting California’s livelihood means protecting its water.
In 2010, the state mandated strict new water quality requirements in the discharge permit of the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (Regional San). The utility operates the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (SRWTP), serving the sanitation needs of 1.6 million customers. The new regulations prompted Regional San to implement the EchoWater project, a $1.7 billion upgrade of the SRWTP.
Over 36 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide are emitted each year, impacting climate change and altering global temperatures and weather patterns. NovoNutrients is transforming carbon dioxide emissions into alternative protein ingredients. It’s a rags-to-riches story for the eco-friendly age: unsustainable carbon emissions transformed into versatile, complex nourishment for the beings it once threatened. The proof is in the well-fed zebrafish floating around a vat in the NovoNutrients’ lab.
When our financial services client was upgrading and adding more data center equipment to their facilities, the company convinced themselves they were running out of power and were set on colocation as the answer. To confirm their decision, they turned to us, their data center engineer, to assess multiple data centers.
Guided by their smart city plan, City of West Hollywood (WeHo), California, began to implement projects that would help them become a City of the Future. But like many communities, WeHo was busy and needed support in the form of technical expertise to integrate multiple smart city technologies into the built environment. This could have stalled their progress, but WeHo proactively established a procurement pathway that gave them access to a bench of technical experts before they launched their smart city projects.
When the Town of Vail looked at transitioning from diesel to alternative fuel buses, they looked to Black & Veatch, a leader in high-power electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment.
Good things are happening in California. Primarily driven by water scarcity and commitment to resilient infrastructure, communities and organizations across the state are working together to purify and reuse water previously returned to the ocean. Benefits include environmental protection, optimized investment and asset management, and development and maintenance of a more resilient water supply.
Tempe, Arizona sits just east of Phoenix, one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. It’s also home to the Sun Devils of Arizona State University (ASU), a leading public research university. Just east of the ASU campus sits the Ocotillo Power Generation Plant. Because of its proximity to the city’s center, this facility has been an iconic part of the Tempe skyline for decades.
Orbital Marine Power, the world’s leading developer of floating tidal stream turbines, appointed Black & Veatch’s UK renewable energy team as Lead Engineering Partner to support technology optimisation and cost reduction engineering as part of the company’s €5m research and development programme.
Yorkshire Water’s £72 million Knostrop Energy & Recycling Facility turns wastewater into energy, generating sufficient electricity to power 7,600 homes. The project, according to local member of parliament Hilary Benn, “is helping to create a lower carbon future in the Lower Aire Valley.”
Aging infrastructure is by far the most challenging issue facing the water, wastewater and stormwater industry in the United States, according to BV’s 2020 Strategic Directions: Water Report. Yet, given persistent sensitivities to rate increases, accessing finance to improve and upgrade the millions of miles of the nation’s water systems often requires alternative and innovative approaches.
As the UK seeks to decarbonise, waste-to-energy centres such as Ince Park help meet the challenges of adapting conventional power generation to the evolving energy market.
At the Port of Stockton in Northern California, Nautilus Data Technologies’ (Nautilus) commercial floating water-cooled data center stands docked and ready after Black & Veatch completed commissioning oversight for this first-of-its-kind data center. The data center combines efficiency with resourcefulness, setting a new standard in data center innovation.
