Water treatment specialist Veolia Water Technologies’ solutions for wastewater treatment and biogas production are now in service at Turkish dairy company Pınar Süt’s factory in İzmir, Turkey. With the installations, the company has met new discharge legislation and achieved its environmental commitments, reducing carbon emissions by 17% and generating substantial savings on natural gas.
The recent wastewater treatment plant built by Veolia allows treated water at Pınar Süt to be reused with further tertiary treatment, such as flushing water.
Two Veolia technologies are at the heart of the process that produces biogas. The wastewater first goes through a screen. A water mixing device, Idraflot dissolved air flotation (DAF) unit, is used to retain fat, oil and grease (FOG) and suspend solids before entering the anaerobic treatment process with Biobed expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) technology. This is where over 80% of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) is removed. This treatment stage produces about 45% of biogas generated at the plant. The FOG retained in the DAF is combined with other organic waste and sent to Biobulk completely stirred tank reactor (CSTR) unit for purification and further biogas production.
Since 2011, Pınar Süt has conducted corporate carbon footprint calculations and performed reporting studies to reduce its carbon emissions by 15%. Currently, the 3,600m3/day wastewater treatment plant allows daily production of 8,980Nm3 of biogas. This is used in its factory boilers to hit its sustainability targets by saving natural gas.
“We are proud to bring our expertise to Pınar Süt through our advanced technologies that allow the reuse of treated wastewater and the production of renewable, clean energy, reducing the strain on local fresh water resources and the environmental footprint of the installation,” said the CEO of Middle East for Veolia Water Technologies, Thierry Froment.
