Latest News - Pizzorno-AMSE Project

Having successfully received two orders for the construction of wastewater treatment plants in Sousse and Nabeul, WEHRLE Umwelt GmbH has now received a further Euro 3 Million order for the construction and commissioning of the biggest landfill leachate treatment plant in Tunisia, Djebel Chékir in the Governorat Gran Tunis region. The commissioning of the plant is scheduled to be completed in January 2011.

The landfill site is managed by the Tunisian-French consortium Pizzorno-AMSE on behalf of the Agence Nationale de Gestion des déchets. The site has operated for several years with the leachate stored untreated in large lagoons. This "old" leachate is highly loaded because of concentration by evaporation leading to high salt concentrations. The additional “new” leachate has a very high organic loading. The combined composition demands a higher specification process solution, in particular the construction of an aerobic biological step as well as effective process control systems.

For pretreatment of the leachate, to remove oils and fats, screening followed by dissolved air flotation will be used. Here a large part of the settleable and floatable constituents in the leachate will be removed. Organic components will then be degraded in a membrane bioreactor system. Extremely effective aeration will be used incorporating high efficiency ejectors. This will ensure microorganisms in the activated sludge are supplied with enough oxygen to guarantee almost complete organic degradation. Finally, non-degradable constituents such as residual COD and salt will be removed by a reverse osmosis system. The system will incorporate sludge dewatering and the facility to cool the bioreactor as required.

This advanced process solution from WEHRLE for the Tunisian market guarantees reliable leachate treatment whilst enabling the reuse of treated water for agricultural irrigation.

Authors: Anna Natau / Elina Golami

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