What do we do with the wastewater generated by the pharmaceutical industry?

The pharmaceutical industry requires a high consumption of clean water to produce medicines. In order to treat the wastewater generated during this production process and to promote more responsible wastewater management, Salher proposes an overall solution consisting of the following phases:

• A homogenisation tank to regulate the wastewater flow and to homogenise the pollutant loads to control the variations in wastewater production, typical of this type of industry.
• Subsequently, a dissolved air flotation unit, such as Salher’s Vespa model to reduce 90% of suspended solids, oils and fats, 50 to 80% of BOD5 and 60 to 80% of COD.
• When the wastewater generated by the pharmaceutical industries has a high organic matter content, Salher’s biological treatment with a moving bed (MBBR) is the most suitable.
• The particularity of this wastewater is that its micropollutants are resistant to conventional treatments, so in some cases it is necessary to include in the basic water line more exhaustive treatments such as ultrafiltration systems followed by Salher reverse osmosis. Thanks to these systems, the water can be reused, minimising environmental risks and complying with the strictest regulations, with the ecological and economic benefits that this entails.
• The automation systems present in practically all Salher treatment plants play a key role in this type of industry, since discontinuous processes that generate variable flow rates are used to manufacture the active ingredients. When the industry does not have the necessary space to install large homogenisation tanks, the plant can easily and automatically adapt to the work peaks thanks to these systems.
• In addition, Salher offers the possibility of remote assistance for the diagnosis of faults in the equipment and interventions by its technicians, by means of a remote station with SCADA or GSM.

Salher has experience offering solutions for the hospital sector in Paraguay. For this reason, together with its local partner, RB Ingeniería, it has won the trust of a pharmaceutical industry to treat its wastewater.

This new industrial wastewater treatment plant consists of a homogenisation basin in civil works, a Vespa dissolved air flotation unit, a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) in civil works, a chlorination chamber, all the electromechanical elements necessary for the operation of the plant, hydraulic interconnection pipes and an electrical control panel with an automaton.

Salher designs and manufactures compact solutions and modular plants to treat the most polluting waters, as in this case, those of the pharmaceutical industry or the chemical industry in general.