HALCOR SA

The main goal of the Unit is to recycle or to dispose industrial wastewater and ELVAL to comply with the new legislation for water emissions.

The Unit ensures the legal operation of ELVAL in relation to its water emissions and at the same time has a social impact by saving fresh water for human use.

In 2010, the final stage in the unit’s construction was completed and a part of it was put on trial operation. Since 2011, the industrial wastewater management unit operates 24 hours per day, throughout the year.

Water is, undoubtedly, one of the most precious resources and its conservation is of great importance to the future of the planet. ELVAL monitors and records water quantities used, applies conservation measures and makes a concerted effort to minimize wastewater disposal.

As part of its water conservation policy, ELVAL implements an innovative program aimed at minimizing wastewater disposal to the greatest possible extent. For this reason, it has already installed since 2009, a state-of-the art industrial wastewater treatment facility with a capacity for recycling all or part of the wastewater being produced. This Unit is unique in Greece. This particular project focuses on treating and recycling all industrial wastewater resulting from ELVAL’s production area. The installation consists of a multiple stages process system which makes treated water either appropriate for reuse to the production process, or appropriate for disposal. The unit is a benchmark to all wastewater management technologies, since it combines all state of the art technologies on this area.

The industrial waste process goal is to separate, remove and neutralize wastewater contaminant load, in order to eliminate the adverse effects for its reuse or disposal and to finally produce proper water according to predefined standards. The processes applied are based on physicochemical methods. More specifically, technologies like adsorption, coagulation, separation through membranes and on top reverse osmosis and vacuum evaporation are used. The effective administration and supervision of the operation is possible through the use of PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), which provide the ability to monitor the whole installation. Thus, the whole unit is equipped with several on-line chemical parameter sensors, flow meters, level and pressure transmitters and temperature sensors. In addition, the unit is manned with personnel who administers and monitors the installation, 24hours a day, guided through expert engineers, in order to ensure the proper operation of the electromechanical equipment. Respectively, in order to ensure the effective treatment of the industrial wastewater, the physicochemical characteristics are daily analyzed by the chemistry laboratory which is located in the Unit. As a result, it is feasible to intervene and solve dysfunctions in a short time period. Finally, the unit is properly designed for uninterrupted operation. Back-up equipment is installed in every stage of the process so as to ensure its operation in case of either scheduled maintenance, or equipment breakdown.

The installation and operation of the unit required the cooperation of ELVAL’s technicians with a specialized Italian company.

Employees’ involvement is limited to that of the equipment’s operators and its respective engineers.

ELVAL’s facilities Oinofita Viotias

The installation and operation of the industrial wastewater process unit aims at water saving from the reuse of the treated industrial water. The conservation of this valuable natural resource may reach approximately 200.000 m3 of water annually, based on the existent consumptions. So far, 20.000 m3 of water have been conserved.

The company’s benefits from the installation and operation of the industrial wastewater management unit are not only economic but environmental as well, such as:

• The environmental impact is minimized, since the amount of wastewater form the production process is reduced.
• Quality upgrade of the smelting products is achieved and rejected products are reduced due to the improvement of the quality characteristics of the recycled water.
• Due to the fact that rejected products are reduced, specific energy consumption per ton of product is reduced contributing this way to the company’s environmental performance.