Water is a key resource for industry. Mining, ore processing, chemical industry and many other branches cannot operate without water but also generate polluted wastewaters. These waters require complex treatment prior to being discharged to watercourses or the sea.
Challenges
Large volumes of wastewater are generated in Europe as a consequence of industrial development. Water pollution is specific to each industrial branch. European legislation defines basic properties of surface water and seawater. Industrial wastewater shall comply with these limits, no matter if discharged from an industrial plant to surface waters or occurring secondarily as mine drainage.
Solutions
- Lime is the most available and cost-effective alkali chemical. Sometimes it is combined with limestone in two-step systems.
- Many chemical processes in wastewater treatment require a given pH value. Lime is used to adjust or correct the pH required.
- Many inorganic pollutants like heavy metals and fluorine precipitate at alkali pH. Precipitation with use of lime is the first necessary step to remove them from wastewater.
- Lime promotes flocculation of organics in water to be removed in a sludge form. This process can be used in biological wastewater or that combined with inorganic pollution.
PRODUCTS
Carmeuse offers the AQUACALCO ® product range addressing specific quality and cost optimizing demands of various processes in industrial water and acid mine drainage treatment.