11:00 a.m., August 8, 2022
After the major desalination plant projects, between the 1970s and 2000s, then the explosion of smaller, less energy-consuming units, seawater treatment facilities continue to emerge from the sand, in the four corners of the planet. . The market should reach faster than expected 10 billion euros in annual turnover, which experts credited it at the end of the decade. The French water giants, however, seem to have lost interest in the treatment of ocean brine. Veolia and Suez – which has maintained water activities on several continents – are now competing, all over the world, with much more pragmatic solutions: reusing wastewater.
From Italy to Namibia, French technologies are already being implemented. They make it possible to prevent wastewater treatment plants from discharging water that has already been treated into the sea or rivers.
In Milan, this “pure” resource, which represents millions of cubic meters, ensures the maintenance of green spaces, the cleaning of streets or the irrigation of Lombard farms. In Windhoek, some of the treated water is even intended for domestic consumption. In Spain, it is already estimated that 15% of wastewater is put back into the circuit, particularly for market gardening, compared to less than 1% in France, one of the lowest rates in the world!
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Industrialists also interested
However, Veolia and Suez perfectly master the range of existing technologies. “To reuse water already treated in a wastewater treatment plant, we will look for several components such as pathogenic microorganisms, explains Yvan Poussade, expert on the subject at Veolia. CThis involves the use of very rudimentary or, on the contrary, very advanced methods: filtration, disinfection, by UV or chemical radiation. Up to nine treatment steps can be taken depending on the level of purity desired. »
This summer, Veolia found the right moment to launch an offensive in France and promote its know-how in wastewater to its customers and community managers. The French group offers compact units of which two pilot versions are in service. It has already launched the manufacture of around thirty of these installations and estimates that it will be able to deploy around a hundred of them if the demand ends up manifesting itself. Manufacturers could also be interested. Large consumers of water, such as food manufacturers or refineries, are still too numerous to reject their effluents, when they could treat and reuse them.
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