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Effluent Treatment Plant

Introduction

An effluent treatment plant (ETP) is a facility that treats industrial wastewater to remove pollutants before it is discharged into the environment or reused. The process is crucial for sustainable recycling of waste water and preventing water pollution and protecting ecosystems, and it is mandatory and regulated for many industries like chemical, textile, plastics recycling, oil and gas, metallurgy, mining and food processing. The treatment involves stages like screening, equalization, pH adjustment, biological treatment, physico-chemical treatment, filtration and membrane treatment to ensure the effluent meets safety and environmental standards.

Examples

A plastics recycling facility (PRF) that I worked at near Bristol had to treat waste water generated by washing plastics before recycling. The water was dirty, with high SS, BOD (from residual foodstuffs) and COD (from surfactants used for washing), sulphates and had a high pH due to the use of caustic soda to de-label the plastic waste.

The treatment process that was proposed, after mesh screening, used CO2 to neutralize the high pH. This is an expensive solution but does not use harsh caustic chemicals and is environmentally friendly as it captures industrial CO2. The next process step was DAF = Dissolved Air Floatation to remove SS and scum. To remove BOD, a biological step was used. Finally RO was used to remove residual COD and TDS/Sulphates. For the complete presentation on this process, click here.

For a presentation on textile waste water treatment click here.

For Oil and Gas waste water treatment, click here.

For Mining Waste Water treatment, click here.

For landfill leachate waste water treatment, click here.

Pulp and Paper

Food Processing Waste Water Treatment

Semiconductor Waste Water Treatment

 

Consultancy On ETP Design

To design an efficient and cost effective ETP, one must know the different pollutants in the water and how to treat the water to remove them. An in-depth knowledge of micro-biology and chemistry is many times needed. Building the system yourself will most likely save you money than buying a whole system as over-heads/mark ups are high.

RO systems also require operational and maintenance know how so training is a must otherwise the RO systems foul or scale up.

UK Regulatory Framework

The UK Environment Agency is the primary regulator for effluent discharge in England, issuing permits, monitoring compliance, and taking enforcement action. Ofwat, the economic regulator for the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales, also plays a role by investigating issues related to sewage treatment works/discharge to sewers. In Northern Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is responsible.

Major Effluent Treatment Companies

OVIVO

Hager El Sasser

Veolia

ClearFox

EnPure

Xylem

Huber Screens/Sludge Dewatering

Royal Haskoning

Conclusion

In order to achieve compliance and protect the environment, any industry that generates waste water needs to treat its effluent in an ETP.

About the Author

Rami Elias Kremesti is a UK chartered water treatment specialist with a background in chemistry. He has worked in the water treatment field for over 20 years. He spent ten years working on power stations worldwide and the next ten years working in various industries such as sewage treatment, building services, plastics recycling and drinking water treatment.

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