Highly contaminated wastewater is produced whilst refining and painting the surfaces of the vehicles. We make it safe again!
An ever increasing number of companies both at home and abroad are turning to REMONDIS Aqua for efficient and sustainable wastewater management systems. We have listed a selection of references for you to read below.
AkzoNobel Industrial Chemicals b.v., which is based in Amersfoort, produces salt and energy, chlor-alkali products and derivates. It is Europe's largest producer of vacuum salt and a leading supplier of chlorine, caustic lye, hydrochloric acid, ferric chloride and chemicals for processing water. The products have many areas of application and are used by, among others, the detergent, construction, food, paper, aviation, automobile, pharmaceutical, textile and plastics industries.
The composition of the wastewater generated by AkzoNobel's chemical park at Rotterdam Harbour is highly complex due to the production of chlor-alkali products, vinyl chlorides and herbicides at the different business locations on the site. Faced with the prospect of further production challenges in the future and the need for sustainable, state-of-the-art wastewater treatment processes, AkzoNobel decided to look for a competent and expert partner to extend and then manage the facilities on a long-term basis.
By implementing an optimization concept, drawn up to fulfil AkzoNobel's individual requirements, the performance of the two-stage facility (chemical/physical precipitation phase and biological treatment) has been able to be increased. Furthermore, the way wastewater is accepted has become more flexible, the amount of chemicals used has been reduced and less sludge is generated. By implementing REMONDIS' accredited plant operations concept, AkzoNobel now also has access to the company's know-how gained from running numerous industrial wastewater treatment facilities.
The Volkswagen plant in Pune is one of the largest investment projects by a German company in India. It is the only German production facility that encompasses the entire manufacturing chain – including the press shop, body shop and paint shop and the final assembly. In total, the plant fills an area of 2.3 million square metres, employs 3,500 people and has a capacity of 200,000 vehicles per year.
REMONDIS Aqua is responsible for the wastewater treatment at Volkswagen's production facilities in Pune. Within the framework of a BOOT model, REMONDIS Aqua initially built, operated and maintained the facilities between 2012 and 2017. After completion of the BOOT period, the contract was redesigned and REMONDIS continued to be responsible for the operation and maintenance until 2021.
Two of the plants each clean 500 cubic metres of the highly contaminated wastewater per day from the paint shop, sewage and other production using a biological wastewater treatment process with subsequent membrane bio-reactor (MBR). A third plant cleans another 500 cubic metres, also biologically, in a sequential batch reactor (SBR). The treated wastewater can finally be used for irrigation purposes. The sewage sludge produced in the purification process is dewatered, dried and used as manure.
Wastewater from the food processing industry is primarily contaminated with organic and biological matter. It undergoes the best possible treatment at the Bremerhaven site.
We have been operating a number of different facilities in Bremerhaven together with the city authorities since 2003. These include the central sewage treatment plant which treats both municipal sewage and wastewater generated by the food processing industry located in the fishing port.
The fully biological sewage treatment plant is equipped with state-of-the-art technology. REMONDIS Aqua uses a multi-stage treatment procedure at the plant. The sludge generated by this process is recycled in a modern biogas facility and used to generate energy.
Trespa International B. V. develops ideas in the area of architectural materials and is a leading international producer of high quality panels for exterior cladding, decorative façades and interior surfaces.
Trespa® Meteon® is Trespa's leading family of architectural panels. These are decorative high-pressure compact laminate (HPL) with an integral surface manufactured using Trespa's unique in-house technologies: Dry-Forming (DF) and Electron Beam Curing (EBC). Trespa supplies over a million such panels to its customers all around the world every year.
Having carried out some successful trials, REMONDIS Aqua built and now operates an aerobic activated sludge facility with "cross-flow" membranes (MBR facility) to treat the company's production wastewater. The particular challenge here is that the wastewater contains high concentrations of formaldehyde and phenol. The wastewater facility contains extended pre-filtration and sludge thickening technology.
Ruhr-Zink GmbH is part of the GEA Group and manufactured zinc and sulphuric acid until 2009. The company has devoted itself to recycling: using a zinc electrolysis procedure, it has processed the largest proportion of secondary input substances from the steel industry than any other business in the world.
REMONDIS Aqua built a wastewater treatment plant at Ruhr-Zink in Datteln back in 1999 that meets all requirements for comprehensively cleaning wastewater strongly contaminated by heavy metals. As the general contractor, we took on the entire management of the project – from drawing up the concept, to financing the project, to ultimately putting the plant into operation. Since then, REMONDIS Aqua has been responsible for the smooth operation of the plant using its own staff and has clearly met the treatment targets at all times.
In the past, Ruhr-Zink used to treat contaminated wastewater with lime in accordance with conventional treatment procedures. This led to large quantities of gypsum waste being generated which was contaminated with heavy metals and which had to be disposed of despite the costly subsequent treatment. Thanks to the special wastewater management and treatment process developed by REMONDIS Aqua, this volume of residual waste has been reduced by 90%. The different kinds of wastewater are first collected separately and later brought together deliberately to make optimum use of their neutralisation potential – without the addition of lime.
For over 10 years now, the Oettinger Brewery in Mönchengladbach has been producing a large part of the group's wide range of products. Every year, it makes up to 2.3m hectolitres of drinks.
Looking at its output figures, Oettinger Brauerei GmbH is Germany's biggest beer brand. The company produces and sells a wide range of beers and soft drinks. With the business continuing to grow and wishing to implement more environmentally friendly processes, it decided to have a new resource-friendly concept drawn up for its wastewater treatment processes.
Whilst drawing up the new wastewater treatment concept, priority was put on achieving greater efficiency and process stability combined with greater cost effectiveness. The company opted for REMONDIS Aqua's high-tech process – its RE2ENERGY® process – in which the contents in the wastewater are transformed into biogas in a fully automated anaerobic pre-treatment facility.
For the most part, the procedure involves anaerobic wastewater treatment. Once the solid matter has been removed and the water neutralised, the wastewater undergoes anaerobic treatment in the RE2ENERGY reactor which not only cleans it but also produces biogas. This pre-treated wastewater can then be discharged into the City of Mönchengladbach's sewer system. The biogas is used straight away in the production plant. The plant needs hot water to manufacture its drinks which had previously been produced in a boiler using natural gas. Once the boiler had been upgraded with an additional biogas firing system, the biogas was able to be recycled and used here leading to a reduction in the amount of natural gas consumed by the plant.
Oerlemans Foods specialises in growing, producing and supplying frozen vegetables, frozen potato products and frozen fruit.
With an extremely wide range of more than 1,000 premium products, Oerlemans Foods fulfils its customers' specific needs within the international food service, retail and industrial markets. Oerlemans Foods is one of the pioneers in Europe when it comes to organic and bio-dynamically cultivated vegetables, fruit and potato products. Oerlemans Foods exports to more than 50 countries in Europe, the Middle and Far East as well as South and North America.
The wastewater at Oerlemans' two production plants in the Netherlands is treated using an aerobic activated sludge facility with immersed membranes (MBR facility). Both the quantities of incoming wastewater and the substances in the water differ due to the various products that our customer processes throughout the year. Concentrated waste and sludge are collected and then used externally to produce biogas. A completely new facility was built in Broekhuizenvorst; the existing SBR facility in Waalwijk was converted and upgraded. Both facilities are equipped with pre-filtration, intermediate storage and sludge thickening technology.
MAN Truck & Bus AG is the largest company in the MAN Group and one of the leading international manufacturers of utility vehicles. It produces heavy utility vehicles at its main plant in Munich which has a high level of vertical integration.
The production processes used by MAN Truck & Bus AG generate a variety of wastewater streams, some of which are highly contaminated – such as those from its surface refinement and painting operations. This water has to be treated before it can be discharged from the plant. MAN's decision to extend its production plant also meant that its wastewater treatment facilities had to be expanded. REMONDIS Aqua was able to win over the company with its expertise and its comprehensive concept to modernise, extend and operate its wastewater treatment facility.
We treat the wastewater, which contains oil, heavy metals and paint particles, with a variety of technologies, such as modern membrane processes (ultrafiltration) and chemical-physical procedures. In addition, REMONDIS Aqua ensures the facility for producing fully desalinated water runs smoothly.
LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals group and currently employs around 14,350 people in 33 countries. The company is currently present at 48 production sites worldwide. At its site in Jhagadia, India, LANXESS has production facilities for its four business units liquid purification technologies, material protection products, rhein chemie and high performance materials.
REMONDIS Aqua is responsible for industrial effluent treatment and a sewage treatment plant at the Jhagadia site. Within the framework of an Operation & Maintenance contract, REMONDIS Aqua operated and maintained the wastewater treatment facilities from 2011 until 2020.
Through the industrial effluent treatment plant, various effluent streams from the LANXESS production sites are treated in a three-stage extended activated sludge process. Approximately 2,500 cubic metres of effluent is treated in this way every day. In the sewage treatment plant, another 100 cubic metres of sewage is treated daily through a moving bed bioreactor (MBBR) process. The treated sewage is then used for irrigation purposes.
Blanke refines, laminates, coats and prints on almost every kind of textile surface and fabric as well as knitted and non-woven goods. Its customers are primarily from the automobile and clothing industries but it also supplies firms in the medical, home textiles and technical textiles sectors.
This renowned textile finishing company operates a wastewater treatment facility for its production wastewater at its plant in Bad Salzuflen. REMONDIS Aqua was commissioned with the task of extending and modernising this facility. Today, we are responsible for the smooth operation of the plant, which treats some 2,500 cubic metres of wastewater every day.
The variable composition of the wastewater has meant that we need to implement special processes, which we developed ourselves and are based on the results of comprehensive studies. Our extensive experience of comparable biological processes was also invaluable here. The production wastewater is now pre-treated biologically before undergoing chemical-physical treatment.
Givaudan is a Swiss flavour & fragrance company and the world's largest in this field. The flavours and fragrances are used in the food & beverage industry as well as for cosmetic products. Givaudan looks back on a 250-year history and is present worldwide with 181 sites, 77 production facilities and 15,852 employees. In India, the company has eight sites.
Between 2017 and 2021 REMONDIS Aqua built an industrial wastewater treatment plant with Zero Liquid Discharge technology and operated and maintained it under a DBO model at the Givaudan Pune site. The wastewater treated stemmed from the cleaning in place (CIP) process of containers for the production of flavours and other production processes. REMONDIS Aqua was also responsible for treating raw water and supplying ultrapure water for the production processes.
The effluent treatment included dissolved air flotation, anaerobic digestion and activated sludge process. After the treatment, 90% of the water is recovered by ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis, while the remaining brine is evaporated by a multi-effect evaporator, so that not a drop of wastewater is released into the environment.
Polyplastics Industries is a leading Indian manufacturer of plastic accessories with a history of over 50 years. The company specialises primarily in spare parts for the automotive industry and offers a comprehensive range of products. The Viragram site is one of the 8 sites in India. The main production processes are injection moulding, painting and electroplating.
Starting from 2021, REMONDIS Aqua is responsible for treating the effluents from the electroplating process and recycling water back to production process. The effluents contained the heavy metals chromium, zinc and nickel, among others. According to a DBO model, REMONDIS Aqua built, operated and maintained an industrial effluent treatment plant with Zero Liquid Discharge technology.
The effluents are first pre-treated through an industrial effluent treatment plant using chemical precipitation. Afterwards, about 90% of the water is recovered through ultrafiltration and subsequent reverse osmosis, so that they can be reused as clean water in industrial processes. Approximately 200 cubic metres of effluents are treated this way every day.
Omega Fishmeal and Oil Private Limited was founded in 2011 and specialises in high-quality fish products. The product range includes fishmeal, fish oil, fish capsules and fish soluble. The company's stated goals include satisfied customers, employees and sustainable development for all.
From 2015 to 2019, REMONDIS Aqua was responsible for effluent treatment from fish meal and fish oil production. It built and operated the industrial wastewater treatment plant on a DBO model.
As a first step, organic substances are degraded by anaerobic digestion before the effluents are further purified by means of activated sludge and finally pass through a membrane bio-reactor. The treated water is reused, among other things, for the cooling tower make-up. The plant treats about 500 cubic metres of effluents per day.
Having taken part in a tender, REMONDIS Aqua was able to win over Lorenz Snack-World with its expertise and integrated plant concept. As a result, we now treat the company's production water and recycle any residual waste at our facilities to produce energy.
The existing plants and facilities were integrated into the treatment concept. Since completing the construction work, REMONDIS Aqua has been reliably reaching the treatment targets agreed on – both for the anaerobic pre-treatment of the production wastewater and for the recycling of the organic residual waste. REMONDIS Aqua built a new combined heat and power plant for the biogas produced as a result of the treatment process. The power generated by the unit is fed into the national grid and subsidised in line with the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG).
For many years now, Lorenz Snack-World has been one of the leading European producers of snacks with its long-established branded articles such as 'Crunchips', 'Erdnusslocken' or 'Curly Peanuts' and 'Saltletts'. The company has a workforce of around 3,000 employees and sets very high standards when it comes to protecting the environment and conserving natural resources.
Polyplastics Industries is a leading Indian manufacturer of plastic accessories with a history of over 50 years. The company specialises primarily in spare parts for the automotive industry and offers a comprehensive range of products. The Bhiwadi site with its 700 employees is one of the 8 sites in India. The main production processes are injection moulding, painting, tool manufacture and electroplating.
In the period from 2017 to 2020, REMONDIS Aqua was responsible for treating the effluents from the electroplating process and recycling the water back to production process. The wastewater contained the heavy metals chromium, zinc and nickel, among others. According to a DBO model, REMONDIS Aqua built, operated and maintained an industrial effluent treatment plant with Zero Liquid Discharge technology.
The effluents are first pre-treated through an industrial effluent treatment plant using chemical precipitation. Afterwards, about 90% of the water is recovered through ultrafiltration and subsequent reverse osmosis, so that it can be reused cleaned for industrial processes. Approximately 200 cubic metres of effluents are treated and recycled this way every day.
Evonik is a global leader in specialty chemicals with a presence in over 100 countries and over 33,000 employees. Besides its headquarters in Mumbai, Evonik has two manufacturing facilities and several research, development and innovation laboratories in India, serving customers in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
REMONDIS Aqua is the selected service provider who shall be responsible for wastewater treatment at Evonik's production site in Dombivli. As part of a BOOT model, REMONDIS Aqua has financed the entire capital and is currently constructing the Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) plant. REMONDIS Aqua will be responsible for its comprehensive operation and maintenance from 2021 to 2030.
The wastewater with high dissolved solids will first be pre-treated chemically before passing through various stages of filtration. The concentrated brine is then fed into multi-effect evaporators, which recover the remaining water and ensure that not a drop of wastewater is released into the environment. High purity sodium sulphate is also recovered as an additional product through special dryers and automatically bagged for reuse in the industry with commercial value.
H. Borgmeier GmbH & Co. KG is a family-run company specialising in fresh poultry products and is located in Delbrück in the Paderborn region. It sells chicken, turkey, duck, rabbit, venison, wild boar, convenience food & sausage products.
H.Borgmeier GmbH & Co. KG was founded by Heinrich Borgmeier back in 1903. Over the years, the company has enjoyed steady growth which meant that it needed a new wastewater treatment concept for its production facilities. At the beginning of the project, the system was expected to treat 400m³ of wastewater per day; the wastewater treatment facility is now able to treat a daily volume of 600m³.
A combination of treatment processes were selected to ensure that the facility always treats the wastewater to the same high standard despite the different qualities of water at the plant – generated on the one hand by the production activities and, on the other hand, by the plant's cleaning activities. The wastewater treatment is carried out using a flotation process which had already been installed. The ensuing main treatment phase is performed in a one-line membrane bioreactor (MBR) facility with immersed ultrafiltration membranes and a sludge treatment stage.
This combination of wastewater treatment technologies saves space, conserves resources and produces water which can be directly discharged.
Jain Farm Fresh Foods Limited (JFFL) is a subsidiary of Jain Irrigation Systems Limited, a multinational company with over 12,000 employees and 33 production facilities worldwide. JFFL is the largest mango processor in the world and the second largest processor of dried onions. Other products include guavas, bananas, papayas, strawberries, jamun fruits, tomatoes, dried vegetables and spices.
Within the framework of an operation and maintenance contract, REMONDIS Aqua was responsible for the wastewater treatment of the onion and garlic processing plant at the JFFL Vadodara, Gujarat site from 2018-2020. An important part of the scope of services was also the initial trouble-shooting of the plant in order to identify and eliminate existing inefficiencies.
The screened wastewater from the onion and garlic processing is treated through activated sludge process and filtration so that it can be reused for irrigation purposes. About 350 cubic metres of wastewater are daily treated this way.
The company in Genthin is a subsidiary of the Hansa Group, an international specialty chemicals company which took over the core of the Henkel plant in Genthin in 2009.
Within the framework of a contracting model concluded with Henkel in 1992, we have been treating the wastewater generated by Henkel's laundry detergent production activities in Genthin since then. In addition to this, the facility is able to accept municipal wastewater and wastewater from other industrial businesses – e.g. from a large laundry company and from companies in the plastics industry. The facility is, therefore, highly efficient and cost effective.
The wastewater at the Genthin laundry detergent plant is generated first and foremost from the production of surfactants. It undergoes ideal treatment at the facility which involves a multi-stage cascading process. Moreover, we recover energy from the waste substances and highly concentrated organic waste streams in a biogas facility.
At its site in Mönchengladbach, Valensina's subsidiary, FSP Frischsaft FRISCHE Produktions GmbH, produces high quality chilled fruit juices and premium smoothies sold under its Valensina brand.
Valensina GmbH produces and sells a wide range of soft drinks that covers all segments of this market. As the company's business at its site in Mönchengladbach had continued to expand, it needed to increase its production capacity and develop a new concept for the plant's wastewater treatment system.
REMONDIS Aqua's complex anaerobic wastewater treatment system is now being used to ensure that the wastewater is treated in a resource-friendly way: the RE2ENERGY® process guarantees highly efficient levels of treatment and at the same time makes the best possible use of the energy found in the contents of the wastewater. The biogas recovered from the treatment process is a renewable energy and substitutes the natural gas that had previously been used in the production process to generate steam. As a result, FSP has been able to significantly reduce its carbon footprint.
Jain Farm Fresh Foods Limited (JFFL) is a subsidiary of Jain Irrigation Systems Limited, a multinational company with over 12,000 employees and 33 production facilities worldwide. JFFL is the largest mango processor in the world and the second largest processor of dried onions. Other products include guavas, bananas, papayas, strawberries, jamun fruits, tomatoes, dried vegetables and spices.
Within the framework of an operation and maintenance contract, REMONDIS Aqua was responsible for the wastewater treatment of the mango processing at the JFFL Chittoor site in Andhra Pradesh from 2019-2020. An important part of the scope of services was also the initial trouble-shooting of the plant in order to identify and eliminate existing inefficiencies.
The screened wastewater from mango processing is treated by two plants through activated sludge process and filtration so that it can be reused for irrigation purposes. Both plants treat about 1,000 cubic metres of wastewater each day this way. As an additional service, the resulting mango peels were composted.
DMK Deutsches Michkontor GmbH, the result of a merger between Humana Milchindustrie and Nordmilch, employs approx. 5,500 people and has an annual turnover of around 4 billion euros. Its Altentreptow and Bergen sites generate an annual turnover of approximately 220 million euros.
DMK Deutsches Milchkontor GmbH runs a classic dairy business with cheese production at its Altentreptow site. In 2006, this was then joined by a whey processing plant owned by wheyco GmbH – a company belonging to the DMK dairy corporation. As a result of the expansion of the production site, REMONDIS Aqua was commissioned with the task of extending and operating the wastewater treatment system. In 2008, it was then awarded a second project to build and run a much-needed further extension to the wastewater treatment facility.
Wastewater generated from cheese production and whey processing contains high levels of organic matter – a big challenge for the treatment process. REMONDIS Aqua developed a cost-effective solution: a large percentage of the pollutants are transformed into biogas during the initial treatment phase by using an anaerobic process and then generated into electricity in REMONDIS' own combined heat and power plant. In order to ensure that the energy potential is used in the best possible way, we use the heat generated in the power plant for the treatment process (combined heat and power). In addition, a further procedure was integrated into the system to recover phosphorus, namely our patented REPHOS® process.
Deutsche Nickel GmbH can look back on a long and successful history. It has, for example, been processing metals for more than 100 years now at its Schwerte site alone. The company is one of the world's leading producers of materials from nickel and nickel alloys.
REMONDIS Aqua has been responsible for operating the plant's wastewater treatment facility in Schwerte since 2002. Since then, we have upgraded and optimised both its technology and control system. In addition, we have provided a water pollution control officer for Deutsche Nickel GmbH to help the company fulfil its legal obligations.
The production of materials from nickel alloys, non-ferrous metals and stainless steel generates highly polluted wastewater. We use a special process, developed by our own experts, which reliably removes the heavy metals from the water.
BP Gelsenkirchen GmbH is a joint venture between Deutsche BP AG and the Venezuelan state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. Both partners hold a 50% stake in the joint venture, which was established back in 1983.
Within the framework of a company partnership, REMONDIS built an oil sludge treatment plant at BP Gelsenkirchen's Horst site. We provided all of the services involved – from drawing up the concept, to managing and financing the project. The chemical-physical treatment facility has the capacity to process 25,000 tonnes a year. The oil that is recovered is returned for processing and the remaining wastewater is treated.
Before treatment, the liquid and solid elements are first separated from each other. The settled sludge is used, among other things, to produce substitute fuels; the liquid elements undergo further treatment stages, including the use of organic separating agents and splitting up emulsions by reducing pH values.
Polyplastics Industries is a leading Indian manufacturer of plastic accessories with a history of over 50 years. The company specialises primarily in spare parts for the automotive industry and offers a comprehensive range of products. The Viragram site is one of the 8 sites in India. The main production processes are injection moulding, painting and electroplating.
The wastewater, which has a high sugar content, undergoes anaerobic and thus energy-saving preliminary treatment. The primary task here is to remove the organic contents. The energy stored in the wastewater can be recovered as biogas. The company benefits as the biogas is used to substitute natural gas in its production processes. A second volume of wastewater, which contains high levels of sulfate, is treated using a high performance aerobic system.
The plant in Carcaixent, Spain – in the orange-growing region of Valencia – extracts fructose and produces a variety of flavours for the food and drinks industries.
Wild Valencia is a subsidiary of Rudolf Wild GmbH & Co. KG, a company based in the German city of Eppelheim, and is most well-known for its successful soft drink Capri-Sun. With the business at the plant in Carcaixent, Spain, developing rapidly, the company decided its existing wastewater treatment facility had to be expanded. REMONDIS Aqua built a new facility and is now responsible for its operations management.