Industrial waste and effluents

It essentially deals about wastes and effluents from the food-processing industry.

Effluents are often highly charged with a soluble pollution and/or a pollution in the form of suspended solids. Their chemical or aerobic biological treatment proofs to be highly energy consuming and expensive. Methanisation represents an alternative as a first treatment step, allowing the reduction of the organic pollution up to 90% (depending on the nature of the effluent) with a low excess sludge production and with a net energy production.

In this way the industry can reduce significantly their spending on high energy consuming fabrication processes by using the produced biogas.

Pilot research on the methanisation of whey in a cheese factory at Romanel sur Morges  ( CH)

Organic solid waste can be treated biologically the same way as domestic organic waste. An interesting alternative however can be the use of this waste for the so-called co-digestion, which is the digestion of waste in a mixture of (liquid) manure or sludge from sewage treatment plants.

Our contribution:

	Technical-economical feasibility studies
	Set-up of pilot research (*) to test the feasibility and conditions for methanisation
	Comparison of treatment processes: technical, economical and environmental
	Studies on the specific recovery or use of biogas based on the project characteristics.
	Realisation of preliminary designs for the implementation of methanisation units
	Realisation of inventories on available digestible products and co-products (investigation, modelling)
(*) In collaboration with local partners or specialists if the case arises.