(News from RISI) – SCA will add a biological water treatment stage to the wastewater treatment plant at its 50,000tpy Kunheim tissue mill in Alsace in northeastern France, using lagoons in which it will plant reeds.
This is the first of its kind in France, the company said, and will improve the quality of the water discharged.
Construction will start this month and the installation will be done between June and August.
The new treatment station will be inaugurated in September.
SCA is using local suppliers, but declined to comment on the size of the investment required.
The mill’s wastewater will first go through the existing physicochemical treatment facility and then be directed to the biological treatment stage.
There, it will first be filtered by a sieve, stored in a vat and cooled by a heat exchanger, before being spread over the lagoons.
The water will then be naturally filtered through layers of gravel and sand in the reed bed and the bacteria attached to the roots of the reed will digest the organic matter in the wastewater.
The combination of the bacteria, the reeds and the filtering layers will thus allow treatment of the water without the addition of chemicals and high energy consumption.
At the bottom of the lagoons, a network of drains will bring the water to the river Rhine.
