Tuas Nexus will integrate the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (Tuas WRP) and Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) to “help forge a more sustainable Singapore by optimising land use, and maximising energy and resource recovery. Photo: NEA
Construction works on the first phase of Tuas Nexus, Singapore’s first integrated waste and water treatment facility has started, revealed the National Environment Agency (NEA) and PUB in a joint release on Tuesday (8 September).
Expected to be completed in phases from 2025, the facility is a co-location of two mega facilities – the Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) and the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (Tuas WRP) – that will “help forge a more sustainable Singapore by optimising land use, and maximising energy and resource recovery”, said the release.
The agencies noted that Tuas Nexus will be energy self-sufficient “by harnessing synergies from Tuas WRP and IWMF”.
This would result in carbon savings of over 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly, which is equivalent to taking 42,500 cars off the city-state’s roads.
Integrating both facilities will also result in up to 2.6ha of land savings – about the size of four football fields – as compared to constructing the two as standalone facilities.
“We are building Tuas Nexus because it is the smart thing to do, as the sum would be far greater than its two parts,” said PUB Chief Executive Ng Joo Hee.
“I believe the Tuas Nexus advances the state-of-the-art in sustainable urban waste management and resource recovery, and establishes a new international benchmark for the field.”
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PUB’s answer to more effectively closing the water loop, the Tuas WRP will feature an initial treatment capacity of 800,000 cubic m per day, which is equivalent to 320 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water.
Credit: NEA
“Unlike conventional water treatment plants, it is equipped to receive both domestic and industrial used water streams from two separate deep tunnels for treatment,” said the release.
In a first for the city-state, the Tuas WRP will also have the capability to treat industrial used water to a “sufficiently high standards” for use by industries.
Aside from incorporating advanced biological, physical and chemical treatment processes, it will also house the world’s biggest membrane bioreactor facility.
IWMF, on the other hand, is the response plan of NEA to meeting the solid waste management needs of Singapore. The facility will boast state-of-the-art solid waste management technologies that will improve energy and resource recovery from waste.
“It is Singapore’s first integrated facility to treat incinerable waste, source segregated food waste and dewatered sludge from Tuas WRP, as well as to sort household recyclables collected under the National Recycling Programme (NRP),” according to the release.
Aside from being Singapore’s biggest waste incineration plant once completed, IWMF will also be “the most energy efficient yet and for the first time, integrate an operational food waste treatment facility and sludge incineration facility to achieve higher food waste recycling rate and greater synergy with WRP’s operations”.
The automated Materials Recovery Facility of IWMF will also consolidate “all recyclables collected under the NRP to achieve greater economies of scale, higher sorting efficiencies and recovery yields for various recyclable waste streams such as metals, paper, and plastic”, said NEA and PUB.
“This will help boost Singapore’s overall recycling efforts and bring Singapore another step closer to realising its vision towards zero waste.”
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Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg