Stories theme: Water

Most municipal wastewater treatment plants are already reaching a good level in terms of their capability to meet regulatory requirements and manage day-to-day challenges; now it is time to switch gear and focus on optimizing processes and reducing resource consumption.

The water treatment industry consumes significant amounts of energy. Depending on the chosen treatment method, process energy-usage can be lowered and sustainable energy produced to benefit operations, society and the environment alike.

While acknowledging the invaluable role that biological processes play in wastewater treatment, chemical treatment brings some significant, measurable benefits when it comes to energy and plant optimization.

On October 24, 2019, Kemira won the European Responsible Care Award for a project turning unutilized by-products into a valuable raw material.

The Miami-Dade South and Central District Wastewater Treatment Plants in Florida had been struggling with the twin challenges of suboptimal concentrator settling and poor-quality biogas from their anaerobic digesters. Using application expertise and experience from other Floridian customers, Kemira experts knew exactly the right way to tackle both problems at once.

After fire damaged the wastewater treatment plant in Étretat, there was no time to lose. Thanks to good cooperation, the plant’s new disinfection solution was up and running just seven days after the fire.

Because people tend to associate “bio” with sustainable, municipal operators may think that biological phosphorus removal must be more environmentally friendly than the chemical alternative. Studying the facts reveals a slightly different story.

Wichita’s Lower Arkansas Water Reclamation Facility (LAWRF) is the largest wastewater plant in the state of Kansas, treating the wastewater of the surrounding population and using the resultant dewatered sludge to help the local crops to grow. When a problem with struvite scale build-up was causing low throughput and increased downtime, the company turned to Kemira to identify the cause of the issue and see where performance improvements could be made.

Outi Grönfors, Principal Scientist at Kemira, discusses her work and how chemicals can help keep microplastics out of our water.

Focusing only on the lowest unit price might not always produce the savings you're after. It also doesn't guarantee improvements in water and sludge treatment processes. That's why interest around alternative procurement approaches grows.