We were approached by a pharmaceutical company generating small batches of wastewater with persistent APIs.
The presence of hazardous APIs meant that they were unable to discharge their wastewater. Instead, they had to tanker it offsite, at a cost of up to 300 EUR/m3.
Martin Tarugarira
Wastewater consultant
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The pharmaceutical company had a comprehensive wastewater treatment system already in place, but there were a selection of persistent APIs which could not be removed by the existing technology.
The client came to us to trial how our technology would enable them to reuse the water, rather than trucking it off site for incineration.
Their priorities included:
EHS Coordinator
We deployed the Nyex Rosalox™ treatment system in order to tackle the containing the API containing wastewater. This was a compact and fully automated solution.
Arvia’s solution provided a <2 year ROI.
Technology alternative was a Multiple Effect Evaporator (MEE). Arvia’s solution was ¼ of MEE capital cost. MEE was a higher OPEX solution too.
The Nyex Rosalox™ treatment process combines adsorption with electrochemical oxidation in a single, scalable unit. As the contaminated water flows into the reactor tank, pharmaceutical contaminants are concentrated onto the surface of our proprietary Nyex™ adsorbent media, which is non-porous with high electrical conductivity.
A low electrical current is simultaneously passed through the media bed to fully mineralise the adsorbed contaminants to H₂O, H₂ and CO₂, without the production of sludge. Unlike activated carbon, Nyex™ media is effectively regenerated in-situ and the process can continue without interruption or incineration to renew the media.
The treated water then flows from the reactor tank ready to be safely discharged.
Tell us what organic compounds you need to remove from your water and our consultants will give their recommended approach which might involve:
Results from the trials show a comprehensive removal of the persistent APIs of >99% and to below the limit of detection (LOD). The energy used was 5kWh/m3.
03.3.2023
A pharma company asked us to help them stop the spread of AMR by removing APIs and COD from wash water.
03.3.2023
Removal from 15 mg/L was demonstrated and a reduction to 0.01 mg/L was reached in less than 6 minutes residence time using about 0.70 Euros worth of energy per m3.
03.30.2023
A comprehensive removal of APIs of >90% and often to below LOD (the limit of detection).
Life sciences
We remove APIs and hard-to-treat micropollutants from wastewater for pharma, CDMOs, animal health, biotech and biopharma sectors.
Speciality Chemicals
We help specialty chemical companies clean their process water, removing active ingredients, biocides, recalcitrant COD and micropollutants.
Agrochemicals
Our industrial wastewater treatment process is very effective in removing organic chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides and insecticides.
Manufacturing
We provide industrial wastewater treatment solutions removing biocides and other micropollutants in wash water and blowdown water.
Aquaculture
Our aquaculture wastewater treatment removes pesticides used to treat sea lice, as well as medicines and off-flavours found in RAS facilities.
