PUMPS & PROCESS SYSTEMS
Crystallising leachate salts for
SUBSEQUENT CONTAINMENT Landfill leachate contains high concentrations of harmful contaminants, especially salts and organic content that pose a threat to the environment when not contained. ReSource speaks to Rob Holmes, managing director: TTM at Tecroveer, and Hugo du Plessis, senior project engineer at KSB Pumps and Valves, about combined technology solutions.
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he formation of leachate is a Dynamic vapour recovery huge benefits for South Africa,” adds Holmes. chemical process that occurs in “When it comes to leachate treatment, there’s KSB product examples that would typically be landfills as organic and inorganic conventionally been one type of technology to employed for a DyVaR process setup are the materials leach out of the landfill treat organics, and another one to deal with the WKLn, ETA and ETAnorm range of pumps, all space. Since it’s a highly toxic salts. Tackling both at the same time requires of which are made at KSB’s Germiston, by-product, management and containment are unique and advanced treatment processes,” Gauteng, factor y. legislative requirements and an environmental says Holmes. “To target the opportunities and environmental KSB’s pump and valve solutions imperative. The key issue is the salt composition in the leachate, which can build up in potentially priorities, we’ve par tnered with European Current and recent Tecroveer projects where technology company Salttech, which has KSB has supplied OEM solutions include harmful concentrations. “The historical practice of containment, developed a proprietar y dynamic vapour recover y a major bulk water supply and irrigation scheme in eSwatini, plus treatment and recycling the various municipal wastewater leachate back into a landfill Dynamic vapour recovery technology removes the salts from the treated treatment works (WWTW) just tends to increase the salt brine effluent and delivers purified water in one process upgrades for South African content over time, exacerbating Vapor municipalities that are ongoing. the problem,” Holmes explains. Fan KSB has also supplied key “This is because mainstream Fresh water products for various local reverse osmosis processes WWTW waste-to-energy projects employed to purify the effluent designed and commissioned by don’t actually remove the salts, Brine in DyVaR Primary Tecroveer. Clients here include but just separate them into a Secondary modules Pump Heat Heat exchanger exchanger an automotive manufacturer, concentrate stream. plus FMCG clients. At one “Even though the leachate site, this entails the extraction has been purified to a fair of biogas to run a 500 kW degree, with significant turbine generator. Another site volume reduction, the Salt currently being commissioned dissolved salts in the brine will have the potential capacity ef fluent have not been to produce up to 3 MW. extracted, since this requires Further waste-to-energy opportunities in the an additional process stage. So, when, in this (DyVaR) process that does both simultaneously public sector are being investigated on an case, brine is returned to the landfill, there’s and ver y effectively,” says Holmes. As an added advantage, the DyVaR solution ongoing basis, since Tecroveer believes there’s a resulting escalation in toxicity over time,” comes in a containerised format that takes up huge potential in this area. he continues. “KSB is an expert solutions partner in all Tecroveer is a water and wastewater a small footprint. It’s also designed to ‘plug plant design and contracting company with and play’ with the existing process network. areas of water, wastewater and allied power more than 40 years of experience in the Essentially, leachate can be treated in a single generation projects, with a well-established municipal and general industrial environment, step, removing high-quality water from the landfill, South African manufacturing and supply base,” working with KSB as one of its preferred with the dissolved salts and organics having been says Du Plessis. separated and removed as a crystallised solid. “Our research and development teams are technology partners. constantly responding to new oppor tunities In recent years, Tecroveer’s traditional focus The latter can then be safely encapsulated. “We’re currently in discussions with private that meet customer demands for greater has evolved with the adoption of advanced technologies for industrial applications, water and public sector landfill owners, consulting efficiencies. Our ‘plug and play’ single- or dualreuse, waste-to-energy, and now landfill engineers and specialist contractors, and pump stations ser ve as a prime example,” believe that DyVaR technology will deliver Du Plessis explains. These are supplied as leachate treatment.
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