Water Transition

– Circular Industrial Water Use with a Focus on Recycling and Microplastics

The transition to sustainable energy and green feedstocks cannot be achieved without a sustainable approach to industrial water use. That’s why the water transition is a top priority for Brightsite. In close collaboration with Circle, we are working to significantly reduce water consumption and emissions to surface waters.

Circular Water for Chemelot
Chemelot operates with an integrated water system. Water from the Juliana Canal is treated to the required quality and used in various processes at the site. Treated wastewater is returned to a branch of the Ur stream—which flows into the Meuse—via the central wastewater treatment facility (Integrale Afvalwater Zuivering Installatie, or IAZI).

The ‘Circular Water for Chemelot’ program identifies Chemelot-wide options to reduce water consumption and surface water emissions. This is done in light of strict regulations regarding water permits and the significant process changes expected across the site as part of the sustainability transition. One of our key objectives is to enable the reuse of treated water in the long term.

The core program of the Water Transition focuses on the implementation of the Circular Water for Chemelot program and builds on the existing Circular Water Roadmap. This program includes studies and pilot projects targeting cooling water conditioning with fewer chemicals, monitoring and reduction of microplastics, reuse of IAZI effluent, and brine stream treatment. In addition, the roadmap will be updated to outline potential interventions to reduce both emissions to surface water and the water usage by site users.

The growth area ‘Water-Safe Plastic Recycling’ explores robust concepts to enable water-safe recycling (at industrial scale) at Chemelot or at satellite locations. This includes improving process design for the pre-treatment of plastic waste to prevent contamination of water by microplastics or chemicals present in the waste, as well as developing appropriate water treatment technologies to remove specific components from wastewater originating from pre-treatment processes.

Considering water from the start
The feedstock and energy transitions will result in process changes at production facilities—changes that will impact water usage and the composition of industrial wastewater. At Brightsite, we consider from the outset what impact new processes may have on the environment, and on the water system in particular.

Lianne van Oord
Program Manager

Tel: +31(0)6 278 218 16
lianne.vanoord@circleinfra.com

Other transitions