Veolia partners with palm oil producer in Indonesia

PT Veolia Water Technologies Indonesia has landed its first contract award with an oleochemical company in Indonesia. It will design and construct a wastewater treatment system to be integrated into a new greenfield palm oil production plant in Indonesia. The wastewater plant will feature Veolia’s Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) system, Biobed^® Advanced EGSB anaerobic and post-aerobic treatment technologies, in order to meet the country’s strict regulations for wastewater discharge.

Veolia’s new client is one of the world’s largest palm oil plantation companies with integrated operations focused on the production of palm-based edible oil and fat as well as downstream oleochemical production facilities. The new oleochemical production plant will carry out hydrogenation, as well as operational functions such as splitting, fracking, and distilling of fatty acids and fatty alcohols for the production of finished palm-based products.

“As a leading provider of water and wastewater solutions, Veolia is well aware of the strict discharge limits imposed by local regulations across the markets that we serve,” said Joko Triyono, Business Development Director, Indonesia Industrial, Veolia Water Technologies. “Indonesia’s discharge regulations for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and oil content is capped at 250ppm and 15ppm respectively, so we recommended our Biobed^® Advanced EGSB technology, together with other complementary systems, to bring our client’s expected wastewater COD and oil content of 5,500ppm and 10,000ppm down to ranges of less than 160ppm and 10ppm, below the Indonesian regulation standard.”

The Veolia Biobed^® Advanced EGSB technology offers high COD loading rate and efficient COD removal, low energy consumption, and its small footprint. The high-performance anaerobic reactor also promotes stability in maintaining and producing anaerobic granular sludge for effective effluent treatment. In addition, the anaerobic treatment process converts COD in the wastewater to biogas, so the offered technology is highly sustainable.

Michel Otten, Technical Director for Biothane Technologies, Asia Industrial, Veolia Water Technologies, added, “Our positive references in this field and our experience in supporting wastewater facilities were contributive factors that led to this appointment. Additionally, on top of providing functional benefits, our first-in-class wastewater treatment technologies also offer our clients the best combination of capital investment and operational cost. This is Veolia’s first project with this client and this recognition is a reflection of our capabilities in the oleochemical industry. This is a great momentum for any further partnership in developing other projects, more specifically in the field of palm oil derivatives processing plants.”