EU directive regulates maximum heavy metal limits for incineration plat wastewater
21-Sep-2001
A new EU directive, which seeks to decrease the amount of heavy metals in wastewater/order_t/'>wastewater
from incineration plants, is currently being transformed into national legislation across
Europe. Degussa’s TMT 15 – an environmentally safe, non-hazardous product – can help
maintain these new limits. According to EU Directive 2000/76/EC, wastewater from
incineration plants may contain no more than 0.03 mg/l mercury and no more than 0.05 mg/l
cadmium. Degussa AG’s business unit Bleaching & water Chemicals, Düsseldorf, offers
TMT 15 as a solution package, including consultation on technical application. This solution
can help maintain many of the new lower maximum limits.
Wastewater from new incineration plants for household or special waste as well as
coal-fired power plants will have to meet the more stringent guidelines by the end of 2002.
The directive requires existing plants to meet the new standards by the end of 2005. TMT
15, which is odorless, is fed into the wastewater stream, where it reacts with the heavy
metals to form a precipitate that can then be separated off and taken, for instance, to a
waste disposal site. “TMT 15 has proven itself in several hundred incineration plants around
the world for the removal of heavy metals – especially mercury and cadmium – from
wastewater,” says Dr. Martin Bauer, business manager for the Bleaching & Water
Chemicals Business Unit. He attributes this to the high degree of safe handling allowed by
the product. TMT 15 is odorless, environmentally safe, non-toxic and non-hazardous. TMT
15 can also be used to remove mercury from the flue gases of incineration plants without
the need for costly retrofitting.
In addition to chemicals for water and wastewater handling, the business unit also
produces environmentally safe bleaching and oxidizing agents like hydrogen peroxide,
auxiliary agents for the paper industry, and cyanide for the mining industry. The business
unit achieved sales of €567 million in 2000 and employs some 1,700 people.
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