Joint venture wins contract to treat brine from reverse osmosis desalination in China

Penglai Pavillon near Yantai, Shandong, China.

Suez and Solvay have won the contract to treat brine from reverse osmosis desalination at Wanhua Chemical Industry Park in Yantai (Shandong Province). This contract is part of the Alliance between the two firms which was formed to jointly develop and market Advanced Oxidation processes (AOPs) within China to meet stringent environmental standards.

Located in the coastal city of Yantai, the industry park of Wanhua Chemical, a global chemical company, is supplied with water by a reverse osmosis desalination plant. The contract won by SUEZ and Solvay provides a treatment line for the brine produced by the desalination process. With a capacity of 24 000 m3/day, this line will treat brine to achieve a quality discharge into the sea, in accordance with the most recent standards of the chemical industry, requiring in particular a total TN content of less than 15 mg/L, TOC≤ 20 mg/l, BOD ≤ 10 mg/l, SS ≤ 10 mg/l, TP ≤ 0,5 mg/l, etc. This treatment line will be equipped with Suez’s patented technologies (Densadeg, Biofor DN, Oxyblue, Flopac, Ozonia® XF) as well as the Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) jointly developed by SUEZ and Solvay to achieve the optimum treatment of brine and optimize the operational costs. It will start operation in October, 2018.

It is the first contract won within the Alliance between SUEZ and Solvay in China this year to combine their expertise and technologies to provide innovative industrial effluent treatment solutions based on Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP)3. These technologies are effective on a broader spectrum of molecules4 and are sustainable, environmental-friendly solutions as they neither transfer pollutants from one phase to the other nor produce large amounts of hazardous sludge. This Alliance delivers a tailor-made treatment model to meet the demands of each industrial player, ranging from process design and installation to the supply of full-treatment services. The R&D centres of both companies, in China and Zurich, provide the necessary technical support, supplemented by a pilot plant equipment allowing on-site trials in order to optimise both efficiency and cost of treatment for specific effluents.

Steve Clark, CEO of SUEZ Asia says “This contract proves the relevance of the Alliance with Solvay. Tighter Chinese regulations require the deployment of more and more advanced treatments involving cutting-edge technologies that combines the expertise of several players. The innovative technologies and business model offered by SUEZ and Solvay represent a flexible and cost effective solution to ensure the treatment of complex effluents from all industrial sectors.”

“The Alliance with SUEZ allows both partners to combine their leading technologies and expertise to offer very effective water treatment solutions for our customers in China, fully optimized to meet their specific needs” says Andrew Cumming, the Asia Pacific President of Solvay Peroxides GBU. “I am very pleased that the Alliance has secured the Wanhua Yantai project as it demonstrates the value that SUEZ and Solvay together can offer to our customers.”