AquaFit4Use paper sector organises workshop with 28 participants from the German paper industry
On 17 May 2011 a workshop with 28 attendees was organised at the paper mill Hamburger Rieger GmbH & Co. KG in Trostberg/Germany. 17 of the participants were representatives of paper mills from the working group “water circuits” within “VPWP”, a German association for board and corrugated paper producers. Presented were the project aim of AquaFit4Use in the paper sector and especially the first results and scope of pilots trials currently conducted on-site at the paper mill in Trostberg. These pilots set-up at Rieger is unique in terms of scale and multiplicity. Consequently the representatives of the German mills were highly interested in the technologies which are studied in work package 5.1.4 and will be piloted in summer 2011:
• Innovative filtration system (Flexible Fiber Filtration 3FM) (Veolia Environment)
• Anaerobic reactor Biomar ASB-x with a new type of sedimentation (EnviroChemie GmbH, EnviroChemia Polska Sp.z o.o.)
• Membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology (PTS)
• Multiflo SofteningTM with a precipitation/crystallisation technology (Veolia Environment Research & Innovation)
• Ozone treatment for advanced COD elimination (ITT Water & Wastewater GmbH; WEDCO)
• Nanofiltration Envopur NF (EnviroChemie GmbH, EnviroChemia Polska Sp.z o.o.)
• Evapoconcentration for the treatment of membrane concentrates and thus reduction of produced wastes (Veolia Environment Research & Innovation)
Pilot plants on site at the paper mill
Presentation of project results
All pilot plants are being operated in parallel during April to September to study different integrated concepts for water recycling in paper and board production. The overall goal of the pilot trials in the
four target industries is to lay the basis for facilitating a reduction of water consumption and narrowing of water circuits. The pilots aim for high water-reuse rates including maximum reductions of energy, chemicals and wastes leading to the more efficient use of limited resources. In this context appropriate data bases will be elaborated from which tailor-made integrated water treatment concepts and energy design covering best combinations of advanced, cost-effective and cross sector clean water technologies can be deduced.
Rainer von Eichhorn (Hamburger Rieger), host of the workshop: Water is still an important issue for the paper industry and we expect the scientific findings of AquaFit4Use will contribute to a more sustainable use of resources in industry.
From February to April the start-up of the pilot plants was performed. The first trial period including tests on technologies for tertiary wastewater treatment started at the beginning of May. Biologically degraded water from the paper mill is polished by particle filtration, nanofiltration or ozone to provide different water qualities depending on the individual reuse requirements of the usage site in the production process. The membrane concentrates are treated by means of evaporation or ozone oxidation. Residual COD compounds in the effluent are cracked chemically by ozone treatment. The ozonation step is the ideal process combination with a subsequent biological treatment stage and enhancing the bio-degradation of the cracked molecules greatly. Due to quite high calcium concentrations, a Multiflo SofteningTM pilot is additionally tested upstream of the nanofiltration in order to reduce scaling and then enhance conversion rates of the membrane process. The trials involving the biological treatment pilots of MBR and the anaerobic reactor are planned to begin in June/July.
The start-up and first results were promising, and the project partners are looking forward to their challenging tasks within the next months. Further information will be provided by the project reports available at the beginning of 2012. Additionally an internal workshop for AquaFit4Use partner companies is scheduled for 14 September 2011 at the site of the pilot trials in Trostberg.
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