Rietland

H2p0wer Argex, circular model for the reuse of wastewater and waste heat

Wastewater can be an excellent source of water and energy in urban areas, as well as providing cooling. Rietland wants to demonstrate this with its H2p0wer Argex project.

Water-purifying parking lots
As we increasingly face periods of prolonged drought, the use of alternative water sources is more important than ever. Rietland (builder of reed beds for wastewater treatment) developed a space-saving water treatment concept: the Phytoparking®. That solution combines natural wastewater treatment with parking space.

... for reuse of water and cooling of a building
The treated water can be reused for toilet flushing and for feeding water to swamp roofs, a concept developed by the German engineering firm Blumberg. Such a swamp roof cools a building in an energy-efficient way and reduces the urban heat island effect. The excess purified waste water can be infiltrated additionally (provided that the legislation is adapted to this). A Phytoparking® reduces drinking water consumption by 30% (toilet flush) and every drop of water contributes to making the environment climate proof (cooling and increasing the groundwater table).

... with energy recovery
In the H2p0wer Argex project, Rietland goes one step further. There, together with his construction team, Rietland builds Phytoparkings that are equipped with an installation that makes riothermy possible. With riothermy, you extract energy from wastewater and use it to heat buildings. By combining wastewater purification and riothermy and placing them in a closed circuit, you get a highly circular concept in which you reuse both water and energy. The same purified wastewater then serves three purposes simultaneously: recuperation, cooling and heating.

Learning from each other
The H2p0wer Argex project brings all stakeholders in the construction team around the table from the design phase. By exchanging experiences and performing analyses together, they get a realistic insight into the costs, payback time and energy, water and CO2 savings of this far-reaching water and energy concept.