{"id":127900,"date":"2020-01-08T08:40:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T07:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/business\/projects\/estacion-depuradora-de-aguas-residuales-de-bens\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T12:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T10:04:28","slug":"the-bens-wastewater-treatment-plant","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/en\/business\/projects\/the-bens-wastewater-treatment-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bens Wastewater Treatment Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"    <m-hero type=\"detail\">\n            <c-breadcrumb label-text=\"Breadcrumb\" slot=\"breadcrumbs\" type='1' align='left left' wrap='wrapped wrapped' aria-label='You came from Projects'>\n                        <ol>\n\n                                                            <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/en\/\" title=\"Ferrovial\">Ferrovial<\/a><\/li>\n                                                                        <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/en\/business-lines\/\" title=\"Business Lines\">Business Lines<\/a><\/li>\n                                                                        <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/en\/business-lines\/projects\/\" title=\"Projects\">Projects<\/a><\/li>\n                                    \n                <\/ol>\n\n                <\/c-breadcrumb>\n            \n        \n                    <picture slot=\"image\">\n                                    <source media=\"(max-width: 667px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ferrovial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/13135725\/bens_galeria-servicios-600x667.jpg\">\n                                                    <source media=\"(max-width: 1023px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ferrovial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/13135725\/bens_galeria-servicios.jpg\">\n                \n                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ferrovial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/13135725\/bens_galeria-servicios.jpg\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-position: center center;\">\n            <\/picture>\n                \n        <section slot=\"hero\">\n            <article bgtype='image' path='2'>\n                <h1>The Bens Wastewater Treatment Plant<\/h1>\n                                    <ul class=\"icons\">\n                                                        <li>\n                                    <a href='https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/en\/business-lines\/construction\/' title='Construction' icon='construction'>\n                                    <\/a>\n                                <\/li>\n                                                    <\/ul>\n                                <\/article>\n        <\/section>\n    <\/m-hero>\n\n    \n\n    <m-project-detail pathfront=\"1\" pathback=\"2\" paginationseparator=\"of\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"dots\" slot=\"bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/wp-content\/themes\/global\/front\/dist\/static\/img\/dots.svg\" alt=\"\">\n\n                        <c-icon slot=\"location\" icon=\"location\">\n                <\/c-icon>\n                <p slot=\"location\">\n                    A Coru\u00f1a, Espa\u00f1a                <\/p>\n                                    <div slot=\"links\">\n                        <c-link external=\"true\" icon=\"arrow\" iconposition=\"right\" sr-only=\"Open new window\" >\n                            <a href=\"https:\/\/edarbens.es\/\" title=\"The Bens WWTP Website\">The Bens WWTP Website<\/a>\n                        <\/c-link>\n                    <\/div>\n                                    <ul slot=\"cypher\">\n                    \n                            <li>\n                                                                    <p><\/p>\n                                                                <div><span >2<\/span><div>M<\/div><\/div>\n                                                                    <p>m\u00b3 of land<\/p>\n                                                            <\/li>\n                            \n                            <li>\n                                                                    <p><\/p>\n                                                                <div><span >60000<\/span><div>m\u00b2<\/div><\/div>\n                                                                    <p>expansive<\/p>\n                                                            <\/li>\n                            \n                            <li>\n                                                                    <p>Residents<\/p>\n                                                                <div><span >600000<\/span><\/div>\n                                                                    <p>equivalents (capacity)<\/p>\n                                                            <\/li>\n                            \n                            <li>\n                                                                    <p>Recovery<\/p>\n                                                                <div><span >950<\/span><div> kW<\/div><\/div>\n                                                                    <p>in 2 engines<\/p>\n                                                            <\/li>\n                                            <\/ul>\n                                <c-icon slot=\"carouselIcon\" icon=\"airports\">\n                <\/c-icon>\n                    <\/m-project-detail>\n    \n\n\n<m-wysiwig class=\"wp-block-components-wysiwyg\"><div slot=\"maincontent\">    <p class=\"intro\">The Bens WWTP, designed for a population of 600,000 inhabitants, is undoubtedly an iconic project due to its technology and its complex location. Making a model of the terrain with its over two million cubic meters of soil was necessary for this project.<\/p>\n    \n\n\n<p>In 1997, the \u201cImprovement to A Coru\u00f1a&#8217;s purification and discharge\u201d construction work was declared to be of general interest to the State (Law 22\/1997). The objective was to provide the municipalities of A Coru\u00f1a, Arteixo, Cambre, Culleredo, and Oleiros with an actual purification system that treated wastewater with a guarantee, allowing it to meet the demands of the European Union&#8217;s guidelines on water quality. In this situation, the Bens WWTP was awarded\u00a0 to the UTE composed of Ferrovial Agroman, S.A. and Cadagua, S.A.in June 2004. Technical assistance to managing the construction was handled by Noega Ingenieros, S.L. and Vaico Ingenieros Consultores, S.A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new Bens WWTP was designed to serve a future population equaling 600,000 inhabitants, with the ability to treat a maximum flow of 6.7  m\u00b3\/s of wastewater. The infrastructure also has a UV disinfection system and an underwater outfall that makes it possible to dilute the water treated at sea over &nbsp;900 m from the coast. As such, it is in compliance with the European guidelines on purification\/sanitation, water quality for&nbsp; raising mollusks, water to be used in bathrooms, and sludge treatment for purification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Construction on this infrastructure &#8211; which occupies an expanse of nearly 60,000  m\u00b2 located between the southwest slope of the Monte Alberto and the seaboard, between the inlet at Bens and Redonda Island &#8211; has meant significant work in moving earth. They had to make a model of the terrain over two million cubic meters, an area which is also undergoing preparation for the \u201cPaseo mar\u00edtimo,&#8221; A Coru\u00f1a&#8217;s metropolitan boardwalk, which will reach 30 m above sea level &#8211; and the new WWTP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The raw water begins treatment at the screen chamber, which has\ntwo trituration channels at its end equipped with grates and two submergible\nchannel crushers. After them, the water flows into the pumping well for raw\nwater, composed of 7 centrifugal submergible pumps. Then, there is a fine\ngrinder with five channels equipped with automatic 3 mm sieves, eight\ndesander-defatters aerated with a spiral flow that concludes the pretreatment\nprocess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The complex terrain required a compact design and an array of technologies with a small footprint, such as the ten primary decanters with lamellar clarifiers and square shapes, or the six secondary rectangular decanters with suction and flat bases. The biological reactor is complete with 3 pools, each with an approximate volume of 9,150  m\u00b3, and it is composed of a facultative selector (7%), a facultative area (16%), an oxic zone (77%), and a deaeration chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the purified water is disinfected, the treated water goes to the loading chamber of the underwater outfall through an underground pipe made of FRP with a 2,350 mm diameter. The loading chamber has an 11 m diameter and is 18 m deep, and the outfall, designed for a maximum outflow of 6.7  m\u00b3\/h, is 920 m long, with an underground section measuring 560 m and a section of underwater outfall that is 360 m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sludge thickening is done with 5 thickening cells with a unit capacity of 100  m\u00b3\/h. The thickened, conditioned sludge goes on to the corresponding anaerobic digesters measuring 28 m in diameter and 21 m total in height, which entails a unit volume of 11,000  m\u00b3. As such, for this phase the holding time is 21.4 days, and for the future phase it is 20 days. It is important to highlight that, due to environmental impact, the digesters have been partially buried (7.6 m) around their cylindrical part. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agitation and warming system for the sludge used in this\nproject is the Heatamix\u00ae system, technology that was developed and registered\nby Cadagua. The Heatamix\u00ae systems are mixed agitation and warming systems\nlocated outside of the digester that agitate the sludge mass using an air-lift\neffect, caused by injecting pressurized gas into the inner tube while hot water\ncirculates in the jacket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After digestion and subsequent dehydration by means of 3 centrifuges measuring 30  m\u00b3\/h each, the sludge goes on to the final Thermal Drying process. This system is based on the process of turbo-desiccation and ensures final dryness of 85%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the digestion process, a biogas is produced that is\nstored in a gasometer for subsequent energetic use. Energy recovery is achieved\nby means of two 950 kW electric motors. What makes these engines unique is that\nthey can be used as a generating set in case of an electrical outage at the\nWWTP, which made it necessary to install an additional natural gas rail. The\nresidual heat from water from the jackets and the drip gases from the motor\ngenerators are used for warming the sludge in digestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the plant&#8217;s dimensions, two installations were included for eliminating different odors: one for the area where raw water is pumped (the raw water pumping building + the old pretreatment building) and another that serves the sludge area and new pretreatment (the bar screen building + the sludge treatment and energy recovery building). These installations cleanse the air of odors at a rate of 36,864  m\u00b3\/h and 77,710  m\u00b3\/h, respectively.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/m-wysiwig>\n\n\n    <m-video >\n                        <p slot=\"type\">\n                    EDAR DE BENS                <\/p>\n                        <a class='m-video__modal' slot='modal' href='https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Gpb_MlY1WPU'>\n            <img slot=\"poster\" v-lazy=\"'https:\/\/static.ferrovial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/13140420\/planta-de-produccion-biometano-bens-cadagua-1920x1285-1-1280x720.jpg'\" title=\"EDAR DE BENS\" width=\"1280\" height=\"100%\" >\n        <\/a>\n            <\/m-video>\n    \n\n    <m-projects-distributor2 :translations='{\n        &quot;prev&quot;:&quot;Previous&quot;,\n        &quot;next&quot;:&quot;Next&quot;,\n        &quot;paginationseparator&quot;:&quot;of&quot;\n    }'>\n                        <h2 slot=\"title\">\n                Related projects                <\/h2>\n                        <a slot='button' title='See more projects' href='https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/en\/business-lines\/projects\/'>\n            See more projects        <\/a>\n\n            <\/m-projects-distributor2>\n\n    ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bens WWTP treats waster water from the municipalities of A Coru\u00f1a, Cambre, Culleredo, Arteixo, and Oleiros with the aim of complying with the European Union&#8217;s directives on water quality. It is undoubtedly one of the most significant sanitation projects carried out in Galicia. It has a pre-treatment facility that can manage up to 6.7 m\u00b3\/s and a secondary treatment system of 2.3 m\u00b3\/s. It treats water from a population of about 600,000 residents. After its construction, Cadagua also took over operation and maintenance of the facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33302,"menu_order":0,"template":"","nivel-1":[15],"nivel-2":[655,3538,551,486,3537,485,598],"nivel-3":[367],"nivel-4":[303],"nivel-5":[7742,7725],"class_list":["post-127900","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","nivel-1-construction","nivel-2-maintenance","nivel-2-operation","nivel-2-waste","nivel-2-waste-water","nivel-2-edar-en","nivel-2-water","nivel-2-water-treatment-plant","nivel-3-spain","nivel-4-galicia-en","nivel-5-cadagua-en","nivel-5-ferrovial-construction"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Bens Wastewater Treatment Plant - Ferrovial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Welcome to the Ferrovial&#039;s website, global operator of sustainable infrastructure. Here you can find all the information about the company and subsidiaries.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/en\/business\/projects\/the-bens-wastewater-treatment-plant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Bens Wastewater Treatment Plant - Ferrovial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Welcome to the Ferrovial&#039;s website, global operator of sustainable infrastructure. Here you can find all the information about the company and subsidiaries.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/en\/business\/projects\/the-bens-wastewater-treatment-plant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ferrovial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ferrovial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-06T10:04:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.ferrovial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/13135725\/bens_galeria-servicios.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ferrovial\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Bens Wastewater Treatment Plant - Ferrovial","description":"Welcome to the Ferrovial's website, global operator of sustainable infrastructure. 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