Biogas production kicks off at Turkish dairy facility in Izmir

In Turkey, Veolia’s patented solutions for wastewater treatment and biogas production are now in service at Pınar Süt’s factory in İzmir, Turkey, allowing the company to meet new discharge legislation and achieve its environmental commitments, reducing carbon emissions by 17% and generating substantial savings on natural gas.

Pınar Süt, one of the biggest dairy companies in Turkey producing mainly milk, yoghurt, cheese, fruit juices, ketchup and mayonnaise, has acted on its ambition for sustainable development with the recent wastewater treatment plant built by Veolia Water Technologies. The treated water is suitable for reuse with further tertiary treatment for certain applications in the factory such as flushing water, which contributes to the sustainability objectives of Pınar Süt.

Two Veolia-patented technologies are at the heart of the process that allows the production of valuable biogas. The wastewater first goes through a screen and a Idraflot dissolved air flotation unit to retain fat, oil and grease (FOG) and suspended solids before entering the Biobed® EGSB granular biomass anaerobic treatment unit where over 80% of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) is removed. This treatment stage produces about 45% of the biogas generated at the plant. The FOG retained in the DAF is combined with other organic waste and sent to a Biobulk™ CSTR unit for purification and further biogas production.