Combined ALgal and BActerial waste water treatment for high environmental QUAlity effluents
Relevant cost factors in waste water treatment are in particular energy consumption and sludge disposal. New concepts for waste water treatment with reduced costs or even with the potential for economic benefit are expected to generate great advantages, especially for SMEs with low budgets.
In the paper industry the conventional way for treating incoming effluents is biological purification. Biological wastewater (by sole bacterial activity) is state of the art in Europe. A lot of different, more or less specialized, treatment technologies are commercially available. However there are limits which cannot so far be overcome with the sole use of bacteria: Priority, endocrine, inhibitory or refractory substances, residual COD, nutrients, for example cannot be removed by bacteria alone.
Multiple technologies for advanced effluent treatment, (evaporation, membrane filtration, oxidation, precipitation…) are in the focus of research for some years. Unfortunately most of these technologies entail high investment and operating costs. Especially SMEs can hardly afford to implement highly sophisticated effluent treatment concepts to improve their effluent quality.
The issue of algae is gaining worldwide importance: Algae are seen to have great potential for effluent treatment, the production of energy and biofuels, as raw material or to reduce greenhouse gases, and have many possible applications.
In this project, the potential of algae for the paper industry and related industrial sectors will be investigated. The aim is to establish suitable concepts for this purpose and determine their cost-efficiency potential.
The results of the project may lead to a paradigm shift regarding effluent treatment in paper industry as well as in related industrial sectors in case effluent treatment by means of algae proofed successful. Entire industrial sectors would shift service and technology portfolio in respect to the new concepts for biological effluent treatment and reuse of excess biomass.
In anticipation of reduced operating costs for effluent treatment (reduced energy supply, less water discharge costs, prospect of earning money by selling recyclable excess biomass) the outcome of this project will have impact to SMEs as well as to bigger companies of all industrial divisions related to the set objectives. It would bring new know-how for every SME partner and enable the exchange of experiences, ideas, knowledge, methods and transfer of know-how, all with the aim of efficient problem solutions. The set objectives will be implemented on actual locations and the results will be applied directly in practice. The target market is the entire area of the EU, including the Balkans.
The project is in accordance with the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) that aims to achieve sustainable water use, sustainable management and protection of freshwater resources. The proposed solutions are innovative and as such they automatically bring about a competitive advantage to economy and researchers in the participating countries. Thus, the achievement of a number of national priority objectives will also be ensured. Therefore, positive results will represent a significant contribution to the understanding of the role of specific treatment constituents, such as algae in the reduction of water pollution, to the knowledge of the dynamics of pollutants and biodegrading or inhibitor processes.
