With no federal PFAS standard for biosolids currently in place, states are pursuing different regulatory approaches, creating a patchwork of requirements that is influencing industry spending and disposal decisions.

“The traditional models for biosolids management in the US, including landfilling and landspreading, are under increasing pressure. Growing public awareness of PFAS in biosolids, increasingly stringent drinking water standards, and state-level regulatory activity are bringing greater scrutiny to conventional management practices,” said Pat Byrne, an analyst at Bluefield Research.

Bluefield Research’s report — PFAS Management of Municipal Biosolids: A Shifting Regulatory Landscape — examines how policy and economic changes are shaping local decisions. PFAS concerns are introducing costs and complexities that were not anticipated a decade ago.

States take different approaches to PFAS in biosolids

States are pursuing three main approaches to PFAS in land-applied biosolids: monitoring requirements, concentration-based restrictions and outright bans on land application. Regulatory developments remain uneven across the country.

Twenty-two states have no PFAS biosolids regulations or clear movement toward introducing them. Among states with existing frameworks, differences in testing methods, concentration limits and land-application restrictions create compliance challenges for utilities and service providers operating across state lines.

In 2026, proposed bans in Massachusetts, New York and Hawaii failed to advance, while tiered restriction models passed in Maryland, Virginia, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. These models generally permit land application at lower PFAS concentrations while imposing tighter requirements as concentrations rise. Initial restrictions in states adopting tiered approaches often begin at concentrations of 20–25 parts per billion (ppb).

“Legislatures and executive agencies in more than half of US states have implemented or appear to be seriously considering new regulations for PFAS in land-applied biosolids,” said Byrne. “This represents an unusual level of regulatory activity for the sector.”

PFAS rules shift spending toward compliance and disposal

Regulatory uncertainty complicates utilities’ capital and operating expenditure planning. Bluefield Research’s analysis points to growing demand for testing, source control, dewatering and hauling services as utilities seek to manage disposal costs while retaining flexibility in their management options.

“Tiered restrictions may offer a more practical alternative to blanket bans, but they also heighten the need and cost for testing, compliance support, and measures to limit PFAS from entering wastewater systems,” added Byrne.

Larger biosolids management companies with access to disposal sites in lower-cost, less restrictive states may be better positioned to navigate the changing landscape. However, differences in state requirements introduce additional compliance costs and operational complexity, potentially offsetting some of these advantages.

Future spending will depend largely on whether states continue to permit land application under defined conditions or require utilities to adopt alternative disposal methods.

Land application remains the dominant pathway

Despite increasing scrutiny, land application remains central to US biosolids management. It offers a relatively low-cost disposal route while returning nutrients and organic matter to the soil, and no alternative is currently positioned to replace it at scale.

Landfilling faces constraints related to material moisture and tipping fees, while incineration capacity remains limited. Only 56 US wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) operate sludge incinerators, concentrated largely in the Northeast and Midwest. Emerging technologies such as pyrolysis and gasification offer potential alternatives but remain expensive and have yet to achieve widespread commercial adoption for biosolids management.

“It is important to recognize that PFAS regulations are not eliminating land application or causing an overnight transformation of municipal biosolids management,” said Byrne. “Land application may become more restricted and costly for some utilities, but it is likely to remain an important management pathway for the foreseeable future.”

As states refine their approaches to biosolids management, utilities and service providers will need to balance compliance requirements against the economics of available disposal options. In the near term, market opportunities are likely to center on PFAS testing, risk management and cost control, alongside solutions that preserve flexibility across disposal pathways.

Bentley Systems has announced the winners of its 2026 Year in Infrastructure (YII) Awards, with projects from across Asia-Pacific recognised for applications of digital twins, AI, geospatial modelling and digital delivery in infrastructure projects.

The awards were announced on 8 Oct 2026 during Bentley Systems’ YII event in Singapore, which brought together infrastructure professionals from around the world. More than 300 projects from organisations in 53 countries were nominated across 12 categories, with winners selected by an independent judging panel.

The APAC region featured prominently among this year’s winners. India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Australia each secured category awards, while Singapore-based T.Y.Lin International was among the recipients of Bentley’s Founders’ Honours for its work on the North-South Corridor.

The regional results reflect a broader shift in infrastructure delivery towards connected digital workflows and AI-enabled analysis, as major projects face increasing demands around efficiency, resilience and sustainability.

Cate Lochead, chief marketing officer at Bentley Systems, said the finalists had moved beyond simply digitising existing workflows.

“By connecting data across lifecycle phases and engineering disciplines, they used AI to unlock potential that was previously out of reach.”

Lochead added that the shift towards AI-enabled infrastructure delivery requires an open ecosystem in which professionals can connect data and their preferred software to support faster decision-making.

Among the APAC category winners was Pinnacle Future Build of India, whose Pinnacle Infotech Digital Twin Madurai Campus won in Cities and Facilities. Aboitiz Renewables of the Philippines won the Geospatial and Reality Modeling category for GeoShield, while APD Global of Australia was recognised in Transmission and Distribution for its AI-driven digital delivery work on the Clean Energy Link-North renewables project.

Indonesia also featured prominently, with Wijaya Karya Bangunan Gedung (WIKA Gedung) winning Structural Engineering for its work on Jakarta International Stadium’s retractable roof.

China’s South-to-North Water Diversion (Chongqing) New Energy Development Co and POWERCHINA Zhongnan Engineering Corporation won Energy Production for the Chongqing Yunyang Jianquan pumped storage digital power station.

2026 YII Awards — Category winners

APAC projects recognised with Founders’ Honours

Bentley also awarded 17 projects with Founders’ Honours, selected by the company’s founders and executives to recognise projects and organisations aligned with its stated purpose of advancing infrastructure and quality of life.

The APAC contingent included projects from India, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.

Singapore engineering consultancy T.Y.Lin International received the Ground-Informed Design honour for its work on the North-South Corridor’s 800m-long dual three-lane road tunnel.

India’s WSP Global was recognised under Connected Data for its iTwin AI project lifecycle intelligence platform, while Almondz Global Infra Consultant received the ‘Digital twin at scale’ honour for NAKSHA.

Indonesia’s Hutama Karya was recognised for the Parliamentary Complex of Nusantara under Constructioneering, while the Philippines’ Maynilad Water Services received the ‘Resilience/ Sustainability — Securing our water future honour’ for scaling leak detection from district metered areas to system-wide analysis.

With the awards spanning transport, energy, water, construction and urban infrastructure, this year’s results point to the increasing role of connected data and digital modelling across the infrastructure lifecycle — with AI emerging as an additional layer for analysis, optimisation and project delivery.

For APAC, the breadth of recognised projects also reflects the region’s ongoing investment in large-scale infrastructure and the digital systems being developed alongside it.

The company has appointed Hari Prasad as managing director, India, where he will oversee its expansion across the semiconductor, data centre and energy sectors. Prasad brings nearly 30 years of experience in water technology, most recently serving as general manager, industrial water at Pentair, and previously holding senior roles across India, the Middle East and Africa.

The new contracts cover ultrapure water (UPW), wastewater treatment and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) systems. They include a repeat award from a global chipmaker for the expansion of an existing fabrication facility, pointing to continued demand for water infrastructure as India’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity grows.

Gradiant said customers selected its systems based on water recovery rates, ZLD performance and project execution timelines. The projects will support manufacturing facilities that must meet India’s increasingly stringent industrial wastewater discharge requirements while maintaining reliable water supplies for production.

“India is fast becoming one of the most important places to build the AI supply chain, from chips to circuit boards to solar cells,” said Prakash Govindan, CEO of Gradiant. “When a chipmaker comes back to us for its next expansion, that is the strongest endorsement we can get. With Hari’s leadership and an engineering team in India that serves customers here and around the world, we are well placed to be the single accountable water partner for that build-out.”

The expansion also includes additional hiring across engineering, project execution, operations and digital functions. Recruitment will support Gradiant’s India operations as well as its Gradiant Engineering Center in Coimbatore, which provides engineering support for projects globally.

The company said its India orders are on track to more than double this year, with revenue expected to more than triple. The growth comes as India expands domestic manufacturing capacity in semiconductors, electronics and renewable energy, industries where water treatment and reuse are critical to plant operations.

“Our orders in India are on track to more than double this year, with revenue set to more than triple,” said Prasad. “A fab or a solar plant can’t run a single shift without water, and the ZLD rules here leave no room for shortcuts. That is exactly where Gradiant wins, and with the pipeline in front of us, we need more engineers to keep up.”

For Gradiant, the India expansion increases its exposure to several of the country’s fastest-growing industrial segments while positioning its local engineering and project delivery capabilities to serve both domestic and international projects.

The awards, now in their third decade, recognise infrastructure projects using Bentley software to address engineering and delivery challenges. This year’s finalists offer a useful snapshot of where the sector is heading: Bentley says 24 of the 36 projects reported using AI in some form, while 22 demonstrated strong or supporting evidence of a connected digital foundation.

The projects were selected from more than 300 submissions representing 53 countries, with finalists assessed on the innovation behind their projects, the challenges addressed and the results achieved. Their work ranges from digital twins and AI-enabled design to geospatial intelligence, flood protection, renewable energy and connected subsurface modelling.

The awards reveal about the convergence of physical infrastructure and digital systems. The shortlist includes projects involving water networks, flood resilience, renewable power, electricity transmission, transport and data-driven construction — areas where digital models and AI are increasingly being positioned not simply as design tools, but as ways to make infrastructure more resilient and responsive.

The regional spread is also notable. Singapore, Indonesia, India, China, the Philippines and Australia all feature among the finalists, reflecting the scale of infrastructure development and digital adoption taking place across Asia-Pacific.

APAC finalists to watch

The finalists will present their projects during Bentley’s YII event at Fairmont Singapore on 6 and 7 Oct 2026. The presentations will cover the engineering context behind each project, how it was delivered, the digital methods employed and the results achieved.

Bentley will also present Founders’ Honors, selected by the company’s founders and executives to recognise projects aligned with its stated purpose of advancing infrastructure for better quality of life.

The Victorian government announced the new rules, saying data centres would remain important to the state’s economy but must not place significant pressure on local electricity and water resources.

Under the new framework, data centres will be prohibited in residential areas and subject to a mandatory 150m buffer from houses. Operators will also be required to match new electricity demand with additional generation and cover the costs of associated network upgrades.

Cooling systems will be restricted to recycled or non-drinking water, while data centre developers will be required to “bring their own renewable energy supply”, according to the state government.

“Data centres are vital to Victoria’s economy, but we need to make sure they don’t put pressure on local water and electricity supplies,” the government said.

The measures come as Australia seeks to expand its data centre capacity to support rising demand from cloud computing and AI, while addressing concerns over the infrastructure and resource requirements of large-scale facilities.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been pushing for national standards for data centres as the federal government seeks to balance investment in the sector with concerns from local communities.

Westpac Banking estimates that data centre investment in Australia could reach A$225bn (US$160bn), with the majority of spending expected over the next three years.

The contracts cover five semiconductor fabrication sites across New York, Virginia, Idaho and Utah. Gradiant will provide ultrapure water (UOW) systems, high-recovery wastewater treatment, local scrubber reclaim and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technologies.

The projects will address the semiconductor sector’s growing water requirements as manufacturers expand domestic production to meet demand for AI infrastructure, including high-bandwidth memory. Semiconductor fabrication requires large quantities of UPW, while constraints on freshwater availability and wastewater discharge can affect the speed and scale at which new capacity is developed.

Gradiant said its systems are designed to reduce freshwater withdrawals, increase the recovery and reuse of process water and treat complex waste streams, including wastewater containing hydrofluoric acid. Its scope across the five sites covers multiple stages of the industrial water cycle rather than individual treatment processes.

Several of the awards came from existing customers. These include the second phase of a high-recovery wastewater facility at one of the world’s largest semiconductor fabs, alongside a scrubber reclaim system that has previously been deployed for the same customer in Singapore, Taiwan and the US. The system can recover more than 80% of its feed volume.

“Water will not be the reason a fab falls behind,” said Prakash Govindan, CEO of Gradiant.

The contract wins underline the growing commercial importance of water infrastructure within the semiconductor supply chain. As chipmakers invest in new fabrication capacity, the ability to secure reliable supplies of ultrapure water and manage increasingly complex wastewater streams is becoming integral to project execution, operational resilience and regulatory compliance.

Gradiant is targeting a US order book of $1bn in 2027. Nish Vora, managing director for the Americas at Gradiant, said the awards represented “exactly the kind of momentum we need” to reach that goal.

The company has delivered more than 3,000 water and wastewater treatment plants across 92 countries. Its latest awards position industrial water treatment as a core component of the infrastructure required to support continued investment in US semiconductor manufacturing and the wider AI economy.

The centre will provide industrial operators with cybersecurity assessments, workforce training and simulated crisis exercises designed to identify capability gaps and improve their response to cyber incidents. Its launch comes as the growing convergence of IT and operational technology (OT) expands the potential attack surface across critical infrastructure and industrial facilities.

AI is also increasing the speed and scale at which threat actors can identify vulnerabilities, automate attacks and employ deceptive tactics. This raises the operational stakes for asset-intensive sectors including energy, water, chemicals, manufacturing and data centres, where a cyber incident can disrupt production, damage physical assets or compromise worker safety.

Many industrial organisations continue to operate legacy systems while relying on IT-focused response plans that do not fully account for the safety, availability and continuity requirements of OT environments. Yokogawa’s new centre seeks to close this gap by helping operators test how their people, processes and security controls perform under realistic cyber-physical conditions.

The ICRC’s framework begins with an assessment of an organisation’s cybersecurity maturity, vulnerabilities and existing capabilities. Yokogawa will then provide customised training and support organisations in developing procedures aligned with industry regulations, while improving coordination between operational, technical and management teams.

The final component uses Yokogawa’s OT Security Simulator, cyber drills and ResilienceScore solutions to test whether organisations can detect, respond to and recover from incidents while maintaining safe and reliable operations.

Chay Kin Wah, president and CEO of Yokogawa Engineering Asia, said the centre represents an investment in both technical capabilities and workforce development across IT and OT environments.

“Our goal is to help organisations build cyber resilience, enabling them to operate securely and innovate with confidence,” he said.

The initiative reflects a shift in industrial cybersecurity from a predominantly preventive approach towards operational resilience. While many companies have invested in technologies intended to block attacks, fewer regularly test their capacity to make decisions, coordinate stakeholders and restore operations during an actual incident.

This is important in OT settings, where incident response must consider production continuity, asset integrity and physical safety alongside data and network security. A technically successful response may still carry operational consequences if equipment is shut down incorrectly or recovery procedures are poorly coordinated.

Charles Lim, head of digital security solution at Yokogawa Engineering Asia, said a major challenge facing industrial organisations was “not the lack of cybersecurity technologies”, but their capacity to recognise abnormal conditions and respond effectively.

He added that the centre would test organisational preparedness under realistic conditions while strengthening coordination across supply chains and interconnected operational networks.

Located at Yokogawa’s Singapore office, the ICRC positions the city-state as the base for the company’s regional industrial cybersecurity services. Its wider impact will depend on whether the centre can translate simulated exercises and assessments into measurable improvements in response times, workforce readiness and operational recovery across industrial sites.

The agreement marks ADB’s first transaction advisory services mandate in India. Rather than financing the projects directly, the multilateral development bank will help the state structure and procure them through public-private partnerships.

The portfolio includes a solar power and battery energy storage development at Shajapur. The facility is intended to meet peak electricity demand, strengthen grid stability and maintain supply when solar generation is unavailable. Details of the other two projects were not disclosed.

“Public resources alone cannot meet India’s growing energy needs. Private capital exists, but markets need to be made investable,” said ADB country director for India Mio Oka.

“By helping Madhya Pradesh to structure bankable PPP projects, ADB is helping to crowd in private investment, demonstrate what works, and create scalable models for clean energy infrastructure across the state.”

The projects support Madhya Pradesh’s Renewable Energy Policy 2025, which aims for renewable resources to meet 50% of the state’s electricity demand by 2030.

ADB will advise on project preparation, commercial structuring and procurement. The agreement could provide a model for attracting private capital into renewable generation and storage projects elsewhere in India if the planned developments secure bidders and reach financial close.

The $1bn figure represents an investment target rather than committed financing. ADB has not disclosed the projects’ generation or storage capacities, expected costs, procurement schedules or construction timelines.

CPB Contractors will deliver the project for Main Roads Western Australia alongside McConnell Dowell, Jacobs and Arup. CIMIC is an Australian engineering-led construction, services and infrastructure investment group controlled by Germany-based HOCHTIEF, which is majority-owned by Spanish construction group ACS.

The contract is expected to generate approximately A$250m in revenue for CPB Contractors. The overall value of the upgrade and the shares allocated to the other project partners were not disclosed.

The works will cover the Kwinana Freeway between Roe Highway and Safety Bay Road, a major transport corridor serving commuters, employment centres, industrial areas and freight movements across metropolitan Perth.

The project includes a new 2.5-km southbound lane and bridge widening between Roe Highway and Berrigan Drive, increasing the carriageway from four to five lanes. A new 3.3-km northbound lane will also be constructed between Russell Road and Beeliar Drive, expanding that section from 3-4 lanes.

Between Russell Road and Mortimer Road, an additional lane will be built in each direction along an 11-km section, increasing the freeway from two to three lanes each way.

The scope also covers noise walls, safety barriers, road surfacing and drainage improvements. Civil works and intelligent transport systems will support 11 coordinated ramp signals along the northbound carriageway between Safety Bay Road and Roe Highway.

Juan Santamaría, chief executive of ACS Group and HOCHTIEF and executive chairman of CIMIC Group, said: “We’re building on our strong relationship with the WA Government, and working alongside Main Roads WA and the Office of Major Transport Infrastructure Delivery, to safely and reliably deliver the Kwinana Freeway Upgrade.

By strengthening connectivity between communities, employment centres, industrial precincts and key freight routes, the upgrade will support growth, unlock economic opportunities and deliver a safer, more resilient transport network.”

CPB Contractors managing director Craig Nuttall added: “CPB Contractors’ staged approach will minimise disruption for motorists. We are committed to working closely with local communities and our environmental, heritage and cultural partners to create sustainable outcomes, maximising employment, training and business opportunities, including for Aboriginal people and Indigenous-owned enterprises.”

The companies did not provide a construction timetable or expected completion date.

The turnkey contract places Gradiant in charge of the campus’s complete water and wastewater package, providing the developer with a single contractor for both systems. Gradiant said the unnamed customer is one of the world’s largest hyperscale technology companies.

The system will be engineered to prevent wastewater discharge into surface waters, a consideration in West Texas, where limited water availability is emerging as a constraint on the development of energy-intensive digital infrastructure.

“Water-scarce regions are where the next wave of hyperscale growth is happening, and most operators don’t have a way to get there,” said Prakash Govindan, CEO of Gradiant. “This project shows hyperscalers can build in these markets without water becoming the reason they can’t.”

The contract will use Gradiant’s HyperSolved platform, which combines water treatment systems, chemicals and digital operational controls for data centres. The project forms part of a wider, publicly reported multi-billion-dollar investment programme in the region, according to the company.

Gradiant did not disclose the contract value, treatment capacity, construction timeline or identity of the data-centre operator. It also did not quantify how much freshwater the system would withdraw or recycle. A zero-surface-discharge design prevents treated wastewater from being released into surface waters, but does not by itself mean that the campus will operate without freshwater withdrawals.

“We’re delivering the site’s full water and wastewater system engineered for zero discharge to surface water, on a construction schedule that leaves no room for delay,” said Nish Vora, managing director for the Americas at Gradiant.

The award adds to Gradiant’s growing portfolio of water projects for AI and data-centre developments. The company has delivered more than 3,000 treatment plants across 92 countries.