Any company can opt for industrial wastewater treatment on its own premises. The advantages of industrial wastewater treatment have an impact on the company’s future business activities. If a company treats its own wastewater, it can define exactly how the industrial wastewater treatment is to be carried out. Each company sits at the source of its own wastewater and can therefore deal with its own industrial wastewater individually.
Advantages of industrial wastewater treatment
What are the advantages of industrial wastewater treatment?
Treating one’s own industrial wastewater results in independence from necessary water resources, energy and legal framework conditions.
Water resources
In-house industrial wastewater treatment creates water resources that the company can re-integrate into its own production cycle – one of the most important advantages of industrial wastewater treatment. The addition of fresh water is no longer or only partially necessary. Although the water demand remains constant, the amount of added water required is reduced. Thus, the systems for treating industrial wastewater conserve the water resources available worldwide. Every company that reduces its water demand simultaneously strengthens its profitability on the market.
Energy
Modern systems for treating industrial wastewater are increasingly concerned with being as energy-saving and resource-conserving as possible. When a company discharges its industrial wastewater into a municipal treatment plant, energy is produced. The same applies to the recirculation of fresh water. A company can counteract this energy expenditure with its own industrial wastewater treatment plant on the company premises. An own industrial wastewater treatment plant will always be more economical and energy-saving than the discharge into a municipal wastewater treatment plant, thus creating advantages of industrial wastewater treatment.
Legal framework
The conditions for discharging wastewater into a public body of water change regularly, regardless of whether it is discharged via the municipal wastewater treatment plant or via the company’s own industrial wastewater treatment plant on its premises. With the company’s own industrial wastewater treatment plant, every company can respond to the legal framework conditions in an individual and uncomplicated way. Every company thus creates independence from municipal service providers.
Direct and indirect dischargers – what are the differences?
Industrial wastewater for businesses comes from public water supplies or public waters. To close the cycle, companies must return it to the environment. This can be done either through their own industrial wastewater treatment plant on the company’s premises or through treatment in a municipal wastewater treatment plant. No matter which way the company chooses, the discharged wastewater must not exceed the prescribed limits.
Direct discharger
Direct dischargers are companies that discharge their industrial wastewater into public waters without detours. This can be rivers, standing waters or groundwater. The lower water authority determines at the regional level which dissolved substances may be contained in the wastewater so that companies may discharge it directly into a public body of water. They must fall below these limits in order to obtain their discharge permit. The authorities regularly adjust the limits to protect the regional environment. With their own industrial wastewater treatment, direct dischargers have the opportunity to conserve resources and thus costs by returning their treated water to their own production cycle.
Indirect discharger
Indirect dischargers pass on their industrial wastewater to the municipal wastewater treatment plant. There, the industrial wastewater is purified in order to be discharged into a public body of water. The more substances are dissolved in higher concentrations in the wastewater, the higher the costs for the discharging company. The fees for purification, regular analyses and the discharge of the wastewater are usually associated with high costs. To save these, pre-treatment is possible on the company’s premises. The finer this is, the fewer substances the municipal sewage treatment plant has to treat and the lower the total costs.
PPU Umwelttechnik GmbH can reliably advise you on which advantages of industrial wastewater treatment are suitable for you. Contact us so that we can find the best solution for you.