Scientific chronicle: Why is industrial wastewater difficult to treat ?

Industrial groups are striving to treat their wastewater in the best possible environmental and economic conditions.

The Veolia Group supports them in their environmental approach and search for compliance, performance, reliability and safety. Technological innovations are crucial for optimizing the pollution control of these multiple and complex types of wastewater.

Industrial wastewater

Development of analytical methods, improvement in existing processes, confi guration of global treatment lines: the Water Research Center works in several areas, with a specifi c focus on saline wastewater, which is a signifi cant issue in numerous industries and is very diffi cult to treat.

Its advances contribute to the preservation of ecosystems by avoiding the direct discharge of untreated industrial wastewater into the natural environment and sparing natural resources.

Video

Jean Cantet (Director of industrial water department, Veolia Water Research Centre) answers questions from Faeza Kedadouche (Legal Department) on the theme of industrial effluents.

Location: Platform for research on industrial effluents, Bouqueval (France)

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Extract from the magazine "Why is industrial wastewater difficult to treat ?"

Organic material characterization tool.

Organic material characterization tool.

Methodology : increase our knowledge of wastewater in order to improve pollution treatment

It is necessary to increase our knowledge of wastewater, i.e. identify the nature and concentration of the pollutants it contains, in order to apply the most appropriate treatment solution: that which will result in the highest treatment rate at the best possible cost and, if required, recover pollutants. In light of wastewater complexity and clashes of compounds, Veolia's researchers must often develop their own analytical tools to obtain reliable data.

The existing measurement tools in the water sector are not always sufficient to analyze industrial wastewater: their results are sometimes distorted by disruptive elements! For example, in the case of saline wastewater (which most of the time contains a fraction of organic material), the presence of salts alters the analysis of the organic material. To be able to characterize this organic material, a laboratory technique must therefore be created to separate salts while preserving its initial characteristics.

This is what the water research Center did. Researchers found a way to condition saline wastewater samples so that the tools used to measure the organic material concentration can be applied without interference.

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Also in this magazine of the scientific chronicles

Interview

Jean Cantet, Director of the Industrial Water Department, Veolia's Water Research Center.

Technologies

A research platform dedicated to saline wastewater.

Research program

A guide to technological choices for mineral precipitation processes.

Methodology

Increase our knowledge of wastewater in order to improve pollution treatment.

3 questions for...

Marine Noël, Marketing Director for Veolia's industrial market division.

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