Wastewater management techniques in the pulp and paper industries have remained mostly unchanged since the late 1990s. However, thanks to a new method that combines quantitative biomass analysis with information technology, a new Kemira invention has been making headway. First put into practice in 2005, the portable LumiKem technology has since won over customers with its ability to maximize the cost to efficiency ratio of industrial wastewater treatment processes.
Kemira’s development of LumiKem began when experts noted a defect in mill wastewater monitoring. Existing methods to both monitor the biomass health of the bioreactor in which the wastewater was being treated and to analyze the treatment process as a whole didn’t always show clearly why failures were occurring. Because LumiKem measures the amount of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) in a treatment system, LumiKem determines the health of this biomass on a quantitative basis and creates a clear and reliable set of data. ATP, sometimes referred to as the primary energy carrier for all forms of life, is a nucleotide that produces energy for chemical reactions and thus serves as a direct and interference-free indicator of total living biomass.
The missing link
“This new method allowed us to create an accurate historical database that has been used to relate causes and effects from the mill’s operations to the wastewater treatment process,” says Edouard Papin, Senior Application Specialist of Water Quality Management at Kemira’s Paper segment. “LumiKem is the missing link between traditional biological treatment operation and the next generation of process efficiency.”
Part of the new solution is the LumiKem PORTAL software that monitors the wastewater treatment process in its entirety, from early toxicity detection to energy cost optimization. “It’s designed to provide Kemira’s sales representatives, as well as mill engineers and operators, with a user-friendly program that can make quick correlations on process information and allow them to optimize wastewater treatment operations at the customer’s facility,” Papin explains.
Ideal location
One of the most extensive uses of LumiKem – and the accompanying software – has been demonstrated at Tembec, a Canadian pulp and paper manufacturer. Having previously utilized the FennoNutri line of microand macronutrients for its wastewater treatment, Tembec adopted the LumiKem solution last year. Both Kemira and Tembec assessed that the technology would help the mill monitor the biomass health of its wastewater treatment more effectively but also optimize the process in the future.
The complexity of Tembec’s wastewater treatment streams makes it an ideal location to apply and develop this particular technology. The mill has three production facilities, and their effluent streams fall into two wastewater treatment processes: Activated Sludge and Anaerobic Process. LumiKem has enabled Kemira to evaluate the toxicity level in each stream and build an action plan in which the risk of a sudden toxic shock will be minimized.
“Optimizing the effluent streams of these production facilities is a great challenge for this new technology and Kemira’s expertise,” Papin says. “As for Tembec, this process will allow them to better understand the causes and effects of process changes and will assist them in minimizing nutrients, energy costs and incoming toxic shocks to the process, as well as in optimizing the living biomass inventory.”
According to Papin, the combination of LumiKem and the advanced information management tool for wastewater processing should give a major boost to Tembec’s operation strategy.
Text: Laura Palotie
Original article published in Kemira’s stakeholder magazine Waterlink 3/2009