In Indonesia, oversight of industrial wastewater discharge has been further tightened through Government Regulation (PP) No. 22 of 2021 on the Implementation of Environmental Protection and Management.
Under this regulation, every industry operator is required to ensure that the parameters of factory wastewater comply with strict quality standards.
As environmental oversight and assessment programs such as the Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s PROPER have increased, industries have begun adopting Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD). This management concept ensures that industrial liquid waste can be fully recycled and reused.
How Zero Liquid Discharge Works in Wastewater Treatment
ZLD is not a single machine, but rather a system of processes that integrates various stages of physical and thermochemical processing. This series of processes includes membrane separation, evaporation, crystallization, and final drying.
The goal is to remove solid waste from wastewater while recycling most of the treated water to be returned to the production facility.
1. Preliminary Separation Using Membrane Technology
The first step in this system generally involves advanced membrane separation technology (such as Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis) to separate clean water molecules from pollutants. The purified water produced by the filtration process can be directly recycled into the plant’s utility system.
After this separation process, the stream that cannot pass through the membrane becomes liquid concentrate waste with a very high concentration of salts and impurities. It is at this point that the core treatment stage of a Zero Liquid Discharge system begins.
2. Thermal Evaporation Processes Using MEE and MVR Technologies
The liquid waste with such extreme concentrations is then fed into the evaporation facility. To evaporate the water and leave behind the pollutants with optimal energy efficiency, this system relies on the application of Multi-Effect Evaporation (MEE) and Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR).
Both of these evaporation technologies have proven their reliability through 30 years of global use in the industrial market. Utilizing steam and evaporation technologies is highly beneficial, as it can reduce operating costs by 50% to 70%.
3. Crystallization and Extraction into Solid Waste
Most of the remaining pure water will evaporate and then condense again, leaving behind the pollutant contaminants in the form of a highly concentrated solution.
The final processing step involved crystallization and drying. During this phase, the remaining concentrated slurry was extracted and completely converted into dry solid waste.
The crystallized solid residue can then be sent to a waste management facility, either for disposal or recycling..
It is this systematic process that makes the factory 100% free of liquid waste.
Achieve the Zero Liquid Discharge Goal with the Experts
PT Hydromaster Harmoni Nusantara has been in business since 2005 and possesses global engineering capabilities to build wastewater treatment facilities that achieve a zero-discharge target.
To learn more about the specifications and benefits of this technology, you can visit the service page Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) page. Visit us now at contact us for a consultation on managing your factory’s waste!