Global Water Intelligence (GWI) organized the 2022 Global Water Summit (GWS), one of the flagship annual events for the international water industry. At GWS each year projects are selected to celebrate significant contribution to the water industry. At the conference and on behalf of WM, Heartland accepted GWI’s distinction award for the 2022 Industrial Project of the Year for the leachate evaporation project at the Waverly landfill in Waverly VA.
The industrial project of the year award recognizes a project, commissioned in 2021, for the most impressive technical or environmental achievement in the field of industrial water and wastewater. The distinction award goes to the project which finished second in the global voting. A 120,000GPD (450m3/d) evaporation solution for reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate at the Waverly landfill site in Virginia, US., this project uses the Heartland ROVAP™ system to address the challenges of RO concentrate waste stream treatment and disposal.
Said Earl Jones, Heartland’s CEO, “The Waverly project was a collaborative effort to evaporate Reverse Osmosis Concentrate. This award belongs to the WM/Heartland project team which has been deservedly recognized for the significant technical and environmental impact the project has made.”
The evaporation solution has massively decreased the need to treat and dispose of RO reject off-site, reducing the carbon footprint of the landfill by avoiding the emission of 5,500 metric tons of CO2 annually, the equivalent to approximately 12,000 barrels of oil per year. Additionally, the RO concentrate evaporation facility is fueled by biogas produced in the landfill, helping to decrease the facility’s overall energy consumption.