An increasing demand for water for the production of starch and the desire to improve quality, combined with the need to invest in well-water purification raised the following issue - should we build our own process water purification plant, or could we outsource it?

 

North Water provided the solution - the construction of a new sustainable process water purification plant at Ter Apelkanaal, as well as its operation and maintenance (the DBFO concept - Design Build Finance and Operate). This enabled AVEBE to focus on its core activities and to meet its water needs sustainably and at the lowest possible cost. The outcome: high quality process water with many applications. The technology used by the new process-water purification plant was specifically developed for purifying surface water coming from the Stadskanaal. The process water produced has practically the same quality as normal drinking water. This high quality water is used for starch production, both for non-critical applications and for the production of starch for the foodstuffs industry. In addition it is used to supply the combined heat and power plant and steam turbines present on site.

 

The technical aspects of the design are based on fully automized operation capable of producing water 365 days per year, 24 hours per day for AVEBE’s various operations. AVEBE is a seasonal company, which means that water consumption during the potato harvesting season is significantly higher than normal. The design takes into account these varying capacities.