COMPACT WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT FOR THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

The pharmaceutical industry is known for one of its greatest environmental challenges: wastewater treatment. Unlike other industrial sectors, the pharmaceutical industry deals with complex molecules, high organic loads, and significant variations in effluent composition over time.

A pharmaceutical company located in the metropolitan region of Campinas faced exactly this reality. Its production process generated a highly complex effluent with significant chemical and biochemical oxygen demand. Any failure in treatment could result in non-compliance with environmental regulations, fines, and risk to the company's reputation.

The client sought a solution that met three simultaneous requirements: high efficiency in removing the organic load, operational stability, and system compactness, as the space available in the plant for the treatment station was limited.

Conventional wastewater treatment solutions, which occupy large areas and operate with single processes, would not be adequate. An integrated and optimized project was necessary.

GIGWATER conducted an in-depth characterization of the effluent, and the results revealed a system completely out of balance, with multiple simultaneous risk vectors.

BOD was above 8,000 mg/L. The soluble fraction of this contaminant was significant, indicating low removal efficiency in the existing treatment. Sulfides and ammoniacal nitrogen were also detected in relevant concentrations, in addition to the presence of metals, including chromium in the initial analyses. Electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids were elevated, resulting from regeneration currents in the chemical process.

The system adopted until then was based on a batch physicochemical process, with limited capacity and low operational frequency. GIGWATER identified three limitations that, combined, made the stability of the treatment unfeasible.

The first limitation was the absence of true equalization. The second limitation was the low capacity for removing soluble load. Finally, the system's stability depended on the operator, not the process. The result was a system that worked sporadically, but could not sustain continuous operation with stability.

PERFORMANCE AND BENEFITS

The implementation of the compact wastewater treatment plant has yielded significant results in performance and environmental compliance for the pharmaceutical industry.