Industrial discharge

Production activities generate waste which can be liquid (referred to as industrial wastewater), pasty or solid. Made up of small quantities or large streams, their specific characteristic is that they contain a broad range of pollutants (hydrocarbons, organic compounds, metals, salt etc.) in extremely varying concentrations, which also determines their hazard level category.

In order to prevent their dispersion in natural milieus and limit the impact on health and the environment, the industrial sector, with help from specialized treatment companies such as Veolia Environnement, is focusing on treating this waste as close as possible to the generating activity, recycling it within the process itself, recovering it in other industrial sectors or storing it if necessary.

Waste multiplicity requires the development of made-to-measure treatment processes meeting the efficiency and reliability criteria in order to comply with regulatory requirements in terms of discharge and safety. Its recycling should also be developed to limit the amount of final waste and save natural resources.

Based on our extensive treatment expertise (thermal, physical-chemical, biological, membrane processes), our R&D work aims at enhancing Veolia Environnement's range of industrial services and contributing to the development of sustainable industrial waste treatment processes. This work relates to all industrial sectors.

OUR MAJOR PROJECTS DEVELOPED IN 2007 INCLUDE:

• decision-making aid tools based on wastewater characterization: for example, a tool for the on-line assessment of wastewater variability making it possible to alert the operator to the unusual quality of wastewater entering the treatment process, as well as a tool for the on-line operation of separation pits in spray booths;
• evaluation of complex wastewater treatment processes, such as wastewater containing large amounts of salt or surface treatment baths (Life Zero Plus project);
• development of a fresh manure treatment and recycling system (Zero Nuisance Piggeries project);
• creation of a guide book on technological choices with regard to differentiating mineral precipitation processes;
• development of physical-chemical processes for the selective recovery of solvents and metals in solid matrices such as batteries or catalysts;
• modeling and process steering tools.