SOGARISA is a leading company in the management and treatment of hazardous, industrial wastewater and industrial waste disposal in Spain.

Sogarisa also operates a facility for the treatment and disposal of industrial waste from their industrial landfill located in Galicia in northeastern Spain.

The Sogarisa effluents plant, located in As Somozas, La Coruna (Spain), is a highly-efficient system that concentrates wastewater and brine streams generated from their industrial landfill and effectively treats landfill leachate.

Landfill leachate is a highly-contaminated waste stream resulting from the ingress of water into solid waste storage. This waste stream is characterized by a high content of ammonia, COD (chemical oxygen demand), heavy metals and salinity (chlorides, sulfates, etc.).

Challenges of Treating Effluent Streams

The composition of these waste streams makes treatment very difficult using conventional methods and technologies due to the highly-corrosive properties of the effluent stream, the variability of the feed stream, and its tendency to foul equipment.

Due to the scaling tendencies of the leachate, stable system operation and system availability were some of the biggest concerns when designing the wastewater treatment plant at Sogarisa.

The protection of the environment was another critical consideration when designing the plant. Water resources needed to be used efficiently as possible. The water balance of the landfill needed to be controlled while reducing the volume of solid waste at the facility.

Evaporation technology has proven to be an effective technique for meeting these objectives. HPD's experience with volume reduction applications provided the expertise required to design a process to effectively execute this project.

A single-effect, forced circulation evaporation system was selected due to the ability of the design to resist fouling and scaling and provide a high availability system even with the variable chemistry of the process stream.

The resulting volatile components in vapor from the concentration process are fed to a thermal oxidizer for destruction. The resulting heat recovered from the combustible gas produces steam that is subsequently reused by the concentration system. The remaining clean condensate is purged from the plant by means of a forced draught fan, fulfilling all of the local environmental standards.

Website: www.hpdsystems.com