Optimization wanted
Janssen Pharmaceutica wants its waste water management to reflect its image as an innovative company. The pharmacy giant is implementing a master plan to make business operations at the various Flemish sites as sustainable as possible.
Initial discussions with Aquaplus focused on optimizing the waste water treatment plant. Do you mean 'business operations' in general or 'waste water management' specifically.
The task
A good knowledge of the existing treatment plants and a clear picture of how it wanted to manage them, these Janssen Pharmaceutica already had. But how to fit the installation in Beerse into this picture was anything but clear. "We brought in Aquaplus to do an optimization study", project leader Ivo Bogaerts of Janssen Pharmaceutica explains. First and foremost Janssen Pharmaceutica needed an accurate picture of the current installation, in terms of process management, maintenance schedules, file management and regulations. A project team spent half a year closely examining the treatment process, in order to draw up a detailed plan for the future.
Flexibility as added value
The proposal for the study was split into two parts at the tender phase, with the execution of part two depending on the results of part one. This flexibility and transparency were precisely what Janssen Pharmaceutica was looking for. The study thoroughly examined not just the water treatment process itself, but also the physical condition of the building itself and the electromechanics.
Made-to-measure advice
To bring the running of the treatment plant into line with the campus policy, the answer looked to be to take one part of the installation out of service and to convert another part. We decided in consultation to replace a pumping station, the neutralization tank, the pre-settling tank, the bacterial bed and the intermediate settling tank. The mechanism of the influent pumping station was modernized.
Adjustments were also made to the working of the sludge thickeners. At the same time, the further possibilities of rainwater recovery and reuse of the treated water were mapped out, both far from unimportant items in the context of Janssen Pharmaceutica's sustainability policy.
Optimizing the waste water treatment in Beerse also has a payback effect, with savings on personnel, maintenance, energy, chemicals and other operating costs.
