Organica Food Chain Reactor (FCR) Wastewater Treatment

Organica Water is a wastewater treatment technology company with offices in Budapest, Gurugram and Jakarta and more than two decades of experience. It addresses the problem that conventional treatment plants are large, smelly and hard to place inside dense cities, so sewage is often piped far away or left untreated.

Its Food Chain Reactor (FCR) is a biological process in enclosed, temperature-controlled reactors where the roots of natural plants and engineered carrier units provide a large surface for biofilm. The plants complete a food chain that sustains a diverse, resilient biomass able to absorb swings in influent load. Plants look and smell like a botanical garden, so they can sit next to housing, offices or industrial parks, and the effluent can be reused for cooling towers and irrigation. Organica supplies process design, key technology, control and instrumentation and commissioning, and offers technology-agnostic digital O&M services to water companies, EPC contractors, developers and industrial park operators.

• Food Chain Reactor: biological reactors where plant roots and engineered carriers host a diverse biofilm.
• Enclosed greenhouse design: temperature-controlled, odourless facilities that resemble a botanical garden.
• Compact footprint: process design aimed at clean effluent in little space with minimal energy.
• Water reuse: effluent suitable for non-potable uses such as cooling towers and irrigation.
• Upgrades and retrofits: FCR can be applied to existing plants to raise capacity or quality.
• Digital O&M services: data-driven operations using Azure and Power BI to optimise energy use.

Large urban developers in Vietnam can build odour-free sewage plants inside new townships, as done at Vincity Ocean Park in Hanoi. Industrial park operators can install FCR plants and reuse effluent for cooling. Provincial drainage companies can retrofit overloaded plants to raise capacity without acquiring new land.

The enclosed, odourless design lets owners build treatment plants inside dense urban or mixed-use developments rather than on remote land. The resilient biofilm handles fluctuations in influent quality and quantity better than conventional suspended or attached growth systems, according to the company. Treated effluent can be reused for cooling and irrigation, and digital O&M services helped one Budapest plant report 15% lower energy use.

Vietnam treats only a small share of its urban wastewater and is building new sewage plants in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and provincial towns, while land in city centres and new urban areas is scarce and expensive. Compact, odour-free plants that can be placed next to housing and support reuse fit the push for decentralised treatment in growing cities and industrial parks across Southeast Asia.

Organica lists offices in Budapest (Hungary), Gurugram (India) and Jakarta (Indonesia) and reports 100+ plants operating or under construction worldwide. In 2019 it partnered with Vingroup on a 38,000 m3/day plant at Vincity Ocean Park, Hanoi, its first project in Vietnam, and it has signed a cooperation agreement with Vinaconex. Awards include the Frost & Sullivan Visionary Innovation Leadership Award (2019).