FLC (ASX) Fluence China

Originally posted by jamesc666: ↑

In this article, it was reported that about 200 WWTPs in 29 provinces in China has adopted underground treatment of wastewater for reuse purpose.
I believe that not only includes the retrofitting of the larger plant near Beijing (like the large WWTP by SUEZ using MBR treatment, https://www.suez-asia.com/en-cn/our-offering/success-stories/our-references/beijing-huaifang-water-plant ), but also includes those Aspiral units we had supplied to the rural regions.

In order to make it possible to treat wastewater underground, it is impossible to use the traditional activated sludge aeration methods, but as mentioned in the article, the most advanced treatment methods. I am quite sure MABR is one of the best contenders together with the older MBR, MBBR etc.

The sinking in of the WWTPs enable a park to be built at the ground level, enables freeing up of precious land around the old WWTPs for future building of more urban constructions, which in the past was unthinkable to develop anything next to a WWTP due to the odour.

In May 2018, we have sold a first unit of Aspiral for an underground WWTP near Beijing; We have also through Kaitian, undertaken quite many pilot programs incorporating Semi and fully underground WWTP with ponds and park for recreational in Anhui; And with Tiandi at the Hangzhou pilot projects etc.

I am also hoping with our recent retrofit of a WWTP in Anhui with our SUBRE in 2Q this year, will move us closer to more larger size underground retrofit projects in the major cities.

According to the article, there are 5,600 WWTP in China, 200 which is less than 4% has undergone sinking underground, which means if they are gradually renovated, there is a large scope for us in the next 5 to 8 years.

https://mhuanbao.bjx.com.cn/mnews/20220616/1233805.shtml

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@jamesc666 I think you may be mixing up a bit of your info here.
I believe this article is focusing more on Municipal large city/county plants only, NOT rural / decentralized plants.

It is very, very expensive to build these large scale municipal plants underground, as you have to dig down 10 metres, move the dirt somewhere else, add in additional flood prevention, pump in additional aeration for the workers to breathe, then I'd assume that you need a very strong structure above to support the weight of the park and people that are going to go on top. Even more expensive if there is an existing operating plant already there capturing the current wastewater needs of 100k+ people and you need to work around it or put it out of action for a long period.

If space is at an absolute premium, it may be worth it, but in most situations for those 5600 plants, it won't be worth the additional costs.
I just read a different article last night from one of the top ministerial spokesmen and he basically said some provinces have gone a bit crazy trying to outdo each other trying to set standards too high for what the cities actually need, and that some of their plants end up costing up to 10x more than what they should, for no real reason. Very inefficient for spending government money.

Some of these large plants are also outside of the sizing scope of what Fluence is chasing. The retrofit of the Anhui plant to 20,000 m3/d is about the top end of sizing for this stage of where Fluence are at with MABR development. We will need to see a bit of data come out of the Anhui retrofit and the Cambodian PS3 20,000 m3/d plants to see how MABR performs at that sizing first. The Beijing plant from the article was 80,000 m3/d and also takes in municipal + industrial wastewater.

Municipal underground plants would be one of the last things on my list of priorities for Fluence to chase in China, as it just seems like a market that they are not fully equipped for at this stage.
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In terms of what Fluence has done in buried underground plants.

I'm not sure that the Glory Land Beijing plant ever got built with the MABR Aspiral S1.
https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/ann-fluence-wins-first-contract-in-beijing.4170739/
It was meant to be an S1 unit, but since about 2020, Fluence has never listed it as a reference or done any case studies about it, and I'm not sure what happened to Glory Land but the relationship seems to have ended, as Fluence have never referred to them as a partner again in any presentation I have seen since then.

In terms of Kaitian, as far as I am aware all the installations that have been done have all been very similar, both in Anhui and in Hunan. All above ground.
If you have any examples of "quite many pilot programs incorporating Semi and fully underground WWTP with ponds and park for recreational in Anhui" then can you please provide them as I can't recall seeing them before.

Kaitian plants that I am aware of are a layout similar to the above, but range in sizing from 500-1000 m3/d.

The only buried Aspiral container I have seen has been in Zhejiang Province through Tiandi.
The buried an L-series 200m3/d container around Dec 21/Jan 2022 in Lijiacun and said that it was their first buried Aspiral in China.
Prior to 2022, Fluence had sold at least 7 Aspiral Micros across Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Liaoning and through Beijing Railways, and I think a few of those were intended to be partially (half) buried.

Fluence China has revised some of their model family to better suit the 14th 5YP and the specific Provincial needs and a few of their models can be buried if required.

Zhejiang Province (and Tiandi) is definitely supportive of buried and hidden plants for their rural zero discharge pilot villages, but these will mostly be smaller scale sub 400m3/d plants and SUBRE plants. They are focusing on the look of the village, turning these sewage treatment plant surrounds into parks and reuse projects. Not sure what these are going to do once they expand out of pilot into bulk models for the poorer parts of the province/country.