IFAT 2016: A record of 14 water treatment innovations showcased by Nijhuis Industries
“Our industrial clients expect solutions that last at least 10 to 15 years”, said CEO Menno M. Holterman of Nijhuis Industries at their stand at the environmental technology trade fair IFAT in Munich, Germany.
Nijhuis Industries showcased a record number of 14 innovations at IFAT, including their latest technologies such as i-FAT for the recovery of fat, NAR for the recovery of ammonia and Geniaal for the recovery of fertilizer and clean water from manure.
“To meet the demand by our industrial clients we not only provide them our latest water treatment technologies, but we are also maximising our services. For instance, we developed the i-Dose, an intelligent dosing system for our dissolved air flotation units. Based on a unique real time TOC measurement, we help to minimise the operational costs of our customers”, Holterman explained.
The company also announced the i-Wonder, their latest innovation to improve the dewaterability of waste water sludge, and boosting the biogas production.
The environmental trade fair IFAT opened its huge exhibition floor on 30 May and lasted till 3 June.
The automated dosing unit on the i-DAF-unit at the stand.
Intelligent waste water treatment
Nijhuis has a strong focus full service delivery, including the delivery of design, build, finance, maintain and operate (DBFMO) installations for wastewater and resource recovery.
This is illustrated by the new i-DAF, as showcased at IFAT. By making their dissolved air flotation units smarter, Nijhuis is able to deliver additional services, such as the anticipation on changing requirements and regulations. The automation makes it much easier, and therefore lower the total cost of ownership.
The services offered by Nijhuis include an on-line monitoring from the Nijhuis head office in Doetinchem, the Netherlands.
"We have a staff of five full time operators at our head office that remotely control the water treatment installations at our clients all over the world", Holterman said proudly.
CEO Menno M. Holterman of Nijhuis Industries shows the i-Dose that can save up to 30 percent in chemical consumption.
More biogas
Holterman notices that industrial clients are considering to make more use of the biogas from their anaerobe waste water treatment.
Many industrial water users do not use the biogas from their anaerobe water treatment and burn it in a flare stack. The biogas contains much sulphur and they consider desulphuration and power generation too expensive.
For other industries the volume of the produced biogas is too low for a viable exploitation.
According to Holterman more clients want to start using their biogas. "This is one of the areas we like to expand our services and look for alternative options together with our clients. For instance by increasing the biogas production, a certain option can suddenly become more viable. Or we can combine the biogas production with other industries and sell them electricity instead."
Holterman sees this kind of new services crucial for suppliers of industrial waste water treatment technology. "If our service includes the purchase of chemicals for water treatment, why not help them selling the resources they recover."
Green tech solutions
The same goes for the treatment of wastewater sludge. "There is a growing understanding that the recovery of resources from sludge can be an interesting business case. Industries realise this can help them to reduce the costs of handling the sludge", Holterman explained.
Nijhuis developed several new technologies to meet this new demand. One of them is i-FAT that recovers fat, oil and grease from wastewater. The recovered fat can be upgraded into biofuel, enabling the replacement of fossil fuels.
Another new green technology by Nijhuis is Geniaal for turning manure into fertilizer and clean water.
The most advanced green technology as showcased is the i-Wonder, a three step treatment of waste water sludge that increases the production of biogas.
"It can increase the biogas production up to 20 percent", assured Holterman. "More important it also permits an easier dewatering of the sludge, allowing an increase up to 3 percent in dry solids content. This means a huge saving on disposal costs."
Nijhuis offers the option to hire an i-Wonder unit and share the benefits of for example the savings on the sludge disposal.
Broker in resource recovery
Holterman sees a big future for his company in resource recovery. "We can be a broker and develop together with our customers new business cases for more energy efficiency or more water reuse. This depends on where you are in the world. In certain areas there is primarily shortage of energy, and in other areas it is water", said Holterman.
The same goes for fertilisers. "In the Netherlands there is a big surplus and in the UK there is a shortage. So farmers in the UK are willing to pay more for the fertiliser that is recovered by our clients," as Holterman illustrated the need to include local circumstances in the business case, or as he called it, the need to 'glocalise'.
Read also on this website
● IFAT 2016: Berghof’s Innovation Day explored future of industrial effluent treatment, 2 June 2016
● IFAT 2016: Paques presents flexible Biopaq-ICX for anaerobic industrial water treatment, 1 June 2016
● IFAT 2016: Three giant H2O molecules hanging over Dutch pavilion symbolize circular water use, 31 May 2016
● Meet the Dutch water sector at IFAT 2016, May 2016
● Nijhuis to deliver largest pre-fabricated flotation unit to oil refinery in Kazakhstan, 3 May 2016
● Nijhuis Water Technolgy and Witteveen+Bos to build new wwtp for fertilizer producer Azomures, Romania, 20 November 2014
More information
IFAT
www.ifat.de/en
Nijhuis Industries
Doetinchem, the Netherlands
+31 314 749 000
www.nijhuisindustries.com