Sumikei Czech s.r.o. manufactures aluminium multi-port tubes for car heat exchangers, evaporators, condensers etc. at its factory at Benatky nad Jizerou, near Prague.

When the original water and wastewater treatment system was installed in 2003, one of the main design criteria was to maximise water recycling to meet the requirement for a discharge flow rate of less than 1m3 per hour to the local sewer. This was achieved with a combination of treatment methods, including physico-chemical, settlement, sand filtration, UV, pressure filtration and membrane systems. The total recycling rate achieved was greater than 95%.

Since 2003, the factory has been highly successful supplying within Europe, to the point where it needs to double its existing production.
                                        
Hager + Elsässer have just received a contract to provide a doubling of wastewater treatment capacity, together with the associated water pre-treatment system. The new plant will be completed in Spring of 2009.

Again, the system has been designed with a similar ultra-high recycling rate and will provide treated water to a range of systems including aluminium billet rinsing, extrusion presses, cooling towers etc.

Outokumpu Reduces Operating Costs

Outokumpu's Alloy Steel Rods factory in Sheffield first invested in a stainless steel pickling facility plus associated effluent treatment and bulk chemical storage and dosing systems in 1995, since when the factory has gone from strength to strength in producing high quality stainless steel wire (rod) in a range of materials and diameters. During the intervening years the factory invested in a second pickling line, and expanded its effluent treatment plant.

Over the past thirteen years, the company has also invested in many upgrades of the effluent treatment plant, always with the intention of reducing its operating costs.

Hager + Elsässer have recently received the latest of many orders over the years to improve the mixing in several large storage tanks and also recycle water used in the pickling line using a hydrocyclone system to remove particles of stainless steel scale. This environmentally-friendly system reduces the consumption of mains water, so precious during some recent summers, reduces Outokumpu's water purchase costs, and also effectively frees-up spare capacity in the effluent treatment plant.

Outokumpu's philosophy has been to specify a well designed relatively basic effluent treatment to start with and then, over the years make minor additions and modifications in the light of practical operating experience in order to minimise operating costs and reduce the overall environmental impact. This philosophy has served them very well, and the factory is now highly efficient.