OSM Wart-Milk, the first BioBooster MBR-based plant in Poland

The wastewater market in Poland
Poland is one of the better-performing transition economies in Europe making significant investment in the water and wastewater sector. This investment trend has been prevalent in the market since 2004 when Poland joined the European Union.

Over the years, the surface and groundwater have been polluted by untreated sewage – a serious problem as the country has low water resource reserves; in fact some of the lowest in Europe. Nearly 3,100 municipal wastewater treatment plants are operative in Poland, of which only 65% use modern biologically-based technologies.

The processing industry – dairies in particular – is experiencing growth with the addition of new production lines. As a result, increasing demand for effective cleaning is being placed on the municipal wastewater treatment plants. Upgrading MWWTPs is a slow process and the lack of a more reliable wastewater infrastructure constitutes great potential for onsite treatment plants, thereby serving as a catalyst in the growth of the onsite wastewater treatment market.

OSM Wart-Milk, the first BioBooster MBR-based plant in Poland
Located in the city of Sieradz in central Poland, OSM Wart-Milk is a multi-product dairy processing plant which manufactures an assortment of UHT milk, cheese and yogurt. By the end of 2010, the dairy processing plant will be supplemented with a BioBooster turnkey MBR-based installation. This includes five containers among which are a management facility, mechanical/chemical pre-treatment on belt filters followed by membrane-based treatment. The onsite BioBooster treatment plant will reduce the biological load in the wastewater, resulting in highly cleansed water. The process ensures the dairy’s compliance with wastewater discharge regulations set by the local municipality.

Small plant, high treatment capacity
The plant is designed initially to treat up to 600 m3 of wastewater a day with mechanical/chemical pre-treatment. A partial stream of 90 m3, i.e. a partial flow of the overall wastewater stream after the initial pre-treatment, will receive further treatment in MBR reactors. Both streams will then be combined and discarded to the local municipal wastewater treatment plant. The plant is expected to come into operation in early 2011.