NRG Wastewater Treatment Project Featuring Heartland Technology Wins POWER’s 2026 Top Plant Water Award
NRG Wastewater Treatment Project Featuring Heartland Technology Wins POWER’s 2026 Top Plant Water Award
Commercial-scale thermal evaporation provides a proven path to zero liquid discharge for challenging coal power plant wastewater
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — September 29, 2026 — An NRG Energy, Inc. wastewater treatment project using Heartland Water Technology’s (Heartland) thermal evaporation technology has won POWER magazine’s 2026 Top Plant Water Award.
The award-winning project uses two redundant 50,000-gallon-per-day Heartland Concentrators to treat flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater at WA Parish Generating Station in Texas. Since going online in November 2025, the system has maintained high availability while reducing FGD wastewater volume by approximately 93%. The remaining concentrated residual is incorporated into the plant’s existing gypsum stream to achieve zero liquid discharge (ZLD). The installation provides NRG with a full-scale solution for managing FGD wastewater as the power industry responds to increasingly stringent wastewater discharge requirements.
“NRG is grateful to POWER Magazine for this recognition, and to the Heartland team for a collaboration that delivered real results at WA Parish,” said Robert Patrick, SVP of Development, Engineering and Construction at NRG Energy, Inc. “This award belongs to the plant team that operates this system day in and day out. We needed a solution that was commercially proven and could be integrated into a station that never stops running — thermal evaporation met that standard, and it has performed.”
“We’re incredibly proud to see the WA Parish project recognized by the editors of POWER,” said Mauricio Vargas, CEO of Heartland. “This is a full-scale commercial installation treating one of the most difficult wastewater streams at a coal plant. For other power producers facing similar challenges, WA Parish provides something incredibly valuable: a proven commercial reference.”
A Proven Approach to FGD Wastewater
FGD wastewater is particularly challenging to treat because it can contain high concentrations of dissolved and suspended solids, metals and other constituents, with chemistry that varies with coal characteristics and plant operations.
The Heartland Concentrator uses direct-contact thermal evaporation to remove water from difficult, high-solids wastewater. Rather than relying on conventional heat-transfer surfaces that can be susceptible to scaling and fouling, wastewater comes directly into contact with hot gas in a turbulent evaporation zone. Water evaporates while non-volatile dissolved and suspended constituents remain in a much smaller concentrated residual stream.
At WA Parish, that residual is incorporated into the plant’s existing gypsum-handling system, creating a ZLD approach that leverages existing plant infrastructure rather than creating another wastewater stream requiring separate treatment.
Thermal Evaporation for Other Coal Plant Wastewater
The wastewater challenge facing coal plants extends beyond FGD. Operating, retiring and retired facilities may need to manage combustion residual leachate (CRL), coal combustion residual (CCR) pond water, closure-related wastewater and other high-TDS or high-solids streams.
While chemistry and treatment requirements vary by site, thermal evaporation offers a common approach: removing water to dramatically reduce the volume that ultimately needs to be treated, reused or disposed. The WA Parish installation provides a commercial-scale reference for power producers evaluating where evaporation could fit within a broader wastewater management strategy.
Using Waste Heat to Treat Wastewater
For coal plants with available thermal energy, wastewater treatment can also represent an opportunity to put waste heat to productive use.
Heartland Concentrators can operate using natural gas or integrate suitable waste heat sources, including high-temperature exhaust. This gives plants flexibility to evaluate wastewater treatment alongside existing energy resources, infrastructure, residuals-management systems and operating plans.
The best configuration is site-specific. Wastewater chemistry and flow, available heat, plant infrastructure, residuals management, regulatory requirements and operating horizon all influence the treatment approach.
About Heartland Water Technology
Heartland Water Technology provides advanced wastewater treatment solutions for some of industry’s most challenging wastewater streams. Its proprietary Heartland Concentrator uses direct-contact thermal evaporation to dramatically reduce wastewater volumes, including high-TDS and high-solids streams that can be difficult to treat using conventional technologies. Heartland Concentrators are deployed in power generation, landfill leachate, produced water and other industrial wastewater applications and have treated more than 1.8 billion gallons of wastewater at commercial-scale installations across the United States.
Media Contact
Catharine Reid
Chief Marketing Officer
Heartland Water Technology
info@oneheartland.com
www.oneheartland.com
