Paint industry Kuwait

A paint factory had increased its production capacity while developing a new range of paints. The new paint processing activities produced oil-based paints which resulted in increased pollution and wastewater volume being generated at the factory. Due to this increase in production the paint factory was no longer able to comply with the allowable discharge standards.

A survey was completed of the existing wastewater treatment plant, and an upgrade and retrofit was not possible. To stop getting wastewater tankered offsite, the client needed to implement a new wastewater treatment system quickly. Due to the complex nature of the wastewater, a specialist manufacturer of a bespoke wastewater treatment solutions for paint industry was required to design a system and give process and effluent guarantees. PPU was selected as the technology provider.

As with many factories, space is often very limited on site. Also, there were significant budget constraints with regards to finding a solution to clean this highly polluted wastewater from the paint industry. A balance needed to be found between installing an efficient, simple to run wastewater treatment system but at the same time making sure that it was able to achieve the required effluent standards so the paint factory could comply with its discharge requirements to the Kuwait Environmental Protection Agency.

PPU completed a site survey and examined all the existing infrastructure on site. It was then determined that some of the existing underground tank infrastructure could be used in the planned wastewater treatment solution. This represented a significant cost saving for the client and reduced the amount of civil works and site disruption needed. A containerized plug and play solution was then selected as the system was then built in a quality controlled environment in Germany and tested prior to shipping.

After arrival on site to the paint factory the system was then installed and operational within one week. This meant almost no downtime for the client which is essential for any business. Multiple process steps were recommended by PPU to clean wastewater from paint industry to the desired levels.

An existing underground tank was utilized for sludge storage and to equalize flows on the paint factory. From here the wastewater was pumped into a mechanical screen. Here any inorganics, plastics and other items were removed from the wastewater thereby protecting downstream assets. Next a dissolved air floatation system was installed. This DAF system was modified to specifically handle wastewater from the paint industry with high oil content and a very high COD. In the dissolved air floatation system, the pH was adjusted and then a flocculation step was implemented. A high efficiency circular dissolved air floatation reactor was then installed on the paint factory.

The ClearFox® DAF wastewater treatment system requires no mechanical scraper with the sludge automatically discharged from the flotation module. This simple and deficient patented design means less operator input is required and less maintenance is required. The dissolved air floatation system is fed continuously over the entire day with a screw pump, therefore creating a totally controlled process and allowing a high degree of process control. Flow proportional chemical dosing ensures chemical consumption is kept to a minimum.

After the DAF system, the majority of the BOD, COD, oil and TSS is removed. However, the remaining soluble BOD and COD needs to be removed with a biological wastewater treatment step or an oxidation step. A biological wastewater treatment step was selected here due to simple operation as there were no specialist wastewater treatment plant operator at the paint factory. The solution was brought into operation and continues to treat and clean the wastewater to this day.

The Kuwait Environmental Protection Agency standards are achieved, and the client is extremely satisfied with the ClearFox® wastewater treatment solution for paint industry.