United Utilities is responsible for water and wastewater services in the North West of England. Our purpose is to provide great water and more for the North West.
After your waste goes down the loo, it’ll end up at one of our 569 wastewater treatment works (WwTWs). A key part of our wastewater service is to treat sludge!
Our wastewater treatment captures sludge which is then transported to our Bioresources treatment facilities. Each year these Bioresources facilities treat around 200,000 dry tonnes of sewage sludge. Our main treatment process uses digestion technologies to safely and compliantly treat the sewage sludge. The digestion treatment produces biogas which we use to generate renewable energy and biosolids for onward use.
We’ve become self-sufficient in our energy needs, generating enough power to run our treatment works from our investment in converting sludge to biogas. In fact, we’re producing surplus gas which we are now able to supply back to the National Grid, turning a waste product into a valuable asset that benefits our customers and keeps energy costs down.