The manufacturing industry, together with the energy production industry, accounts for over 70% of total water use in most EU countries. Manufacturing industries discharge large loads of contaminants or toxic emissions, including heavy metals, phosphates, ammonium, chlorinated cyclic compounds, suspended solids and organic matter (fats). These pollutants produce severe degradation in the surrounding plants, crops, insects and other aquatic and terrestrial animals as well as in the ground waters. The inadequate treatment of wastewater is a large source of environmental pollution: eutrophication increases due to the release of phosphorus and nitrogenated compounds, aquatic organisms die due to the presence of heavy metals in water, the breakdown of fats results in strong fumes, etc.
The EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) compels companies to reduce harmful industrial wastewater emissions, and these rules are expected to be tightened in the coming years. Additionally, the “polluter pays” principle forces companies to upgrade their facilities and to pay for any damage done to the environment. These facts are putting the industry at serious risk because of the high costs and the non-compliance with regulations, which involves heavy sanctions.
In light of this, some industries invested in their own wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Unfortunately, most technologies are optimised for large volumes of water (average: 2.500 m3/day) and are too expensive (>€1 million), making it affordable only to big companies. Since each wastewater has different composition, each of them requires specific treatment in order to remove toxic wastes, including carbo-activation, ozonisation, among many others. These processes are very costly: up to €121/m3 and have poor purification results (only 50-65% reduction of hazardous components), and efficiency reduced to as little as 20% in some industries. As a consequence, some industries have to externalize additional WWT services before discharging their streams into the environment and increase total treatment costs. Without new, affordable, more efficient and sustainable methods leading to a complete water treatment and reuse, factories lose competitiveness and may be forced to close or to move to less sensitive countries from other continents, increasing European unemployment and labour impoverishment, and contributing to aggravate environmental threats. Amapex has developed RIBATI, an integral industrial wastewater treatment service. Under the project we expect to manufacture 5 pre-series of the SDU and demonstration of the system in 5 key sectors (chemical, textile, alimentation, hydrocarbons and biogas) and 10 companies. Our objective is to treat around 500.000 m3 of wastewater per year; to generate around €12,3M revenues, an EBITDA of €8,3M, an IRR of 80% and an NPV of €7M (discount rate of 15%). We also expect to create 15 new jobs.
