Wastewater treatment boosted in Istanbul with MBR upgrade

Advanced biological treatment methods

The completion of the Ataköy wastewater treatment plant in Istanbul, Turkey, is helping the historical king of thermal desalination Fisia Italimpianti broaden its global project portfolio.

Worth €83.9 million, the project is being modernised and expanded to process 600,000 m3/day, serving three million people eventually.

Located in the western part of Istanbul, on the European side, the plant will use advanced biological methods to treat the wastewater before discharging it into the sea.

Italian engineering firm Fisia Italimpianti is revamping the existing part of the plant, in service since 2010, to treat 360,000 m3/day from 1.8 million equivalent residents.

This follows completion in late 2018 the construction of a new section for 30,000 cubic metres per day on three treatment lines with Membrane Bioreactor (MBR). Treated water will be used for street cleaning and irrigation.

Going underground in Yenikapi

Ataköy is being delivered on an engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) contract for the Istanbul water and sewerage administration, known as ISKI, which manages water and sewerage in the city.

According to its 2018 report, the organisation manages 86 wastewater treatment plants, with a capacity of 5.8 million cubic metres per day.

In the Istanbul district of Yenikapi, Fisia Italimpianti is building another plant for ISKI that will treat 450,000 cubic metres of wastewater per day, a volume equal to the sewage produced by two million residents.

Wastewater collected from the Yenikapi area, after treatment, will be discharged to the Marmara Sea.

A high load activated sludge process, the treatment plant is located in a central area near to Istanbul and to limit the environmental impact, the project is being constructed underground.