Daldowie Bioresources Investment Project
Project Overview
We are proposing a multi-million-pound investment in a new facility at Daldowie, Glasgow, which will treat bioresource from households across Scotland's Central Belt.
Previously operated under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), the existing facility is coming back into Scottish Water ownership after 25 years. We have a significant amount of investment planned to upgrade the sludge treatment facility on site.
This investment is key to replace ageing assets and ensure operations are as efficient as they can be.
At a Glance
- Multi-million-pound investment
- Improved efficiency
- Greener, self-sufficient treatment processes
- Renewable energy from bioresource
- High quality organic fertiliser product
- Public consultations anticipated Spring 2026
What We Are Doing
We are proposing to upgrade an ageing sludge treatment facility at Daldowie, introducing modern technologies aimed at improving carbon efficiency and reducing operational costs.
The existing facility thermally dries bioresource using natural gas. The new technology will use thermal hydrolysis to treat the bioresource, and prepare it for anaerobic digestion – a biological process that takes place in enclosed tanks. The digestion process will reduce the volume of resulting material (biosolids) and produce biogas.
The new technology will treat bioresource to a higher quality than before, allowing the biosolids to be applied to farmland as organic fertiliser under licence. This environmental best practice is supported by SEPA.
The biogas can be used to produce heat and electricity for the treatment process, and surplus biogas can be upgraded to biomethane for export to the national gas grid, displacing fossil fuel derived gas.
Selected Site
Daldowie has been selected as the preferred location for the new facility. The proposed site is the land currently occupied by Glasgow City Council's (GCC) Training Centre immediately adjacent to the existing sludge treatment facility and waste water treatment works. We are liaising with GCC.
Why We Are Doing It
The technology employed at the existing facility, while fitting for when it was first constructed, is now dated, energy intensive, high carbon, and expensive to operate and maintain. The modern technology implemented by this project will enable us to:
- Maximise resource recovery and renewable energy from bioresource
- Reduce energy usage, carbon footprint and operating costs of bioresource treatment
- Recycle all resulting biosolids to a sustainable outlet
- Reduce the risk and improve the resilience of processing bioresource
- Accommodate planned growth
The existing facility generates around 40,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum. The proposed bioresource treatment centre will reduce this by around 30,000 tonnes per annum, due to the treatment process adopted. This will make a substantial contribution to Scottish Water’s net zero ambitions.
Proposed Treatment Centre
The proposed bioresource treatment centre will reuse the existing sludge reception facility and require a 5 to 6 hectare area for the new assets.
Latest Update
With plans at a very early stage, it's important to note that discussions around this project are ongoing with key partners.
We hope to submit planning later in 2026, once we have completed an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and carried out significant engagement with our customers and key stakeholders.
We'll share more information when we can.
