Project BEST – the link between municipalities, industries and waterworks

BEST project aims to improve industrial sewage treatment in the Baltic Sea Region by enhancing collaboration and best practices between municipalities, industries and waterworks. Municipal wastewater treatment plants are primarily designed to treat domestic wastewater and the treatment processes can be disrupted if plants have to cope with industrial wastewater containing for example hazardous substances or large amount of grease.

Current project activities

To improve the treatment and management of industrial sewage BEST project is collecting tools, practices and methods for increasing cooperation and capacity among waterworks, industries and environmental authorities. The collected material is currently being constructed into a training package. One of the main outputs of the project is to develop Baltic Sea Region wide, and national guidelines for management of industrial wastewaters. In order to facilitate guideline development and to help recognizing most urgent development needs, BEST is also producing assessment report on the current situation of industrial sewage treatment in Baltic Sea Region. The report will give a glance to the EU and national legislation regulating industrial waste water and evaluate how the legislation has been implemented.

Two investments are nearly completed

BEST is launching five investments with a purpose not only to increase waste water treatment capacity in industries and WWTPs but also to demonstrate in practice the benefits of proper control and cooperation. One of the investments, a pre-treatment plant for the cheese factory Latvijas Piens in Jelgava, Latvia was completed in the end of year 2019. The new pre-treatment unit including an equalization tank and a flotation unit with a flocculator will be in full operation by the end of March 2020. Right now, the new pre-treatment plant is being commissioned and tested.

Latvijas Piens is discharging its wastewater effluent to Jelgavas Udens municipal WWTP. High BOD and nutrient contents of the factory’s waste water have been challenging at the WWTP. The new pre-treatment plant will solve this problem and enhance the treatment results at Jelgavas Udens WWTP. Furthermore, the flocs collected from the pre-treatment unit will be utilized for biogas production.

In the commune of Doruchow, Poland a new waste water treatment line for the industrial waste water from local meat processing industry will be completed in spring 2020. The line will consist of a biological reactor tank, a secondary sedimentation tank and an averaging tank. The tertiary treatment process will be based on an innovative new phosphorus filtering media, which is formed from highly porous calcium silicate mineral. The filter media not only removes phosphorus from waste water without chemicals, but also enables full phosphorus recovery. Because of the new treatment line, the concentration of phosphorus in the effluent of the treatment plant will be significantly reduced. All the new tanks and pipelines are already in place waiting for the test runs.