SCA Building Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment Plant at Austrian Tissue Mill

SCA Hygiene Products, Sweden, producer of tissue products and packaging materials, has commissioned the building of an anaerobic wastewater treatment plant at its Ortmann, Austria, site. The Ortmann mill makes toilet paper, serviettes, and pocket tissues of brands such as Zewa, Cosy, and Tork from pulp and recycled paper.

The order for the anaerobic water treatment went to Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS) of France. The VWS subsidiary Veolia Water Systems Austria is building the plant in close cooperation with the wastewater specialists of Aquantis in Germany, which also is a VWS company. Aquantis is essentially handling the overall planning of the anaerobic stage according to the BIOBED® EGSB reactor system. The plant is designed for a maximum CSB load of 16,000 kg/d and a wastewater quantity of up to 8,000 m3/d.

The BIOBED reactor generates energy-rich biogas from wastewater with high organic loads, such as in the paper industry.

The commissioned anaerobic wastewater treatment is due to go into operation in August of this year and will significantly ease the workload of the existing aerobic wastewater treatment plant. The core of the planned plant is an 850 m3BIOBED reactor in which the anaerobic pre-treatment is carried out. The energy-rich biogas arising from the process will, after cleaning and drying, be fed with the aid of a compressor to the works gas turbine to generate its own electricity and steam.

The Ortmann works of SCA is located in the Piesting Valley in Lower Austria. The SCA production site is a key member of the Wastewater Association of the Upper Piesting Valley and the largest discharger into the local sewage plant. To safeguard the plant's cleaning efficiency, including in the case of foreseen future greater waste paper inputs and increased production quantities, the management of SCA Hygiene Tissue decided to build the anaerobic partial current cleaning before the intake of the existing aerobic biology.

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