As a supplier of holistic industrial wastewater treatment solutions we offer made-to-order and turnkey industrial plants. One example of such is this project in Saudi-Arabia from 2018:

A renowned soft-drink manufacturer consulted CUSS to design and install a new wastewater treatment plant at a greenfield factory in terms of complying with high local environmental standards. A combination of anaerobic and aerobic biological treatment was chosen to decrease overall operational expenditures. Further treatment in terms of ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis allows to use the permeate either for the cooling system or it for irrigation.

NUMBERS & FACTS:

·         Country: Province of Mecca, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

·         Hydraulic plant capacity: 2500 m³/d

·         Organic Load: 5000 mg/l (COD)

·         Year(s) of construction: 2018

CONCEPTUAL FORMULATION.

To tackle water scarcity in the region of the production plant it was mandatory by local authorities to reuse the produced wastewater to a particular extend. Energy generation in form of biogas production was another additional specification.

To keep the wastewater treatment plant as compact as possible it was decided to install an EGSB (Extended Granular Sludge Bed) high-capacity anaerobic reactor which biologically degrades the unwanted organic load in the wastewater to i.e. the energy source of biogas.

Further treatment takes place in the aerobic membrane bioreactor. A combination of aeration tank and ultrafiltration modules. The permeate from the ultrafiltration is solids-free and only contains very little amounts of organic substances. A further UV-disinfection plant helps to purify the wastewater in terms of microbiological contamination and improves the water quality.

Part of the treated wastewater can now be used to irrigate the company premises. Another 1000 m3/d will be further treated in a reverse osmosis plant from which the filtrated water will then be used in the cooling system of the production plant.

The effluent treatment plant was well designed to cope with future production increases and can be therefore easily extended to an overall treatment capacity of 4000 m3 wastewater per day.

WASTEWATER CONSTITUENTS:

·         High organic load

·         Big pH fluctuations

·         Effluent has cooling water quality

PROCESS STEPS:

·         High capacity anaerobic reactor

·         Sludge Stabilization and dewatering

·         Membrane bioreactor / Ultrafiltration

·         UV disinfection

·         Reverse Osmosis