In September 2023, Waterleau Group embarked on an innovative journey in Nangis, France, addressing a wastewater and energy challenge faced by a leading sugar refinery.

From conventional lagooning to state-of-the-art wastewater treatment
An established sugar refinery near Paris, France had long relied on natural lagooning for its wastewater treatment. Although this allowed biochemical processes to slowly break down the organic load in the wastewater, the solution came with a significant drawback—it required vast lagoons and extended periods to achieve the desired results. Compounding the challenge was the sugar refinery’s substantial consumption of heat in the form of steam. The status quo was neither sustainable nor efficient.

Waterleau’s Sustainable Solution: Efficiency Meets Sustainability
To upgrade the sugar refinery wastewater treatment infrastructure and dramatically reduce the plot footprint, Waterleau designed a cutting-edge UASB Biotim reactor for turning the organic pollution into biogas, complemented with a biogas reuse skid. This combination not only streamlined wastewater treatment but also captured and harnessed biogas, used to fuel the steam generators in the sugar refinery’s processes.

The system leveraged recovered heat from the refinery to heat the UASB reactor, minimizing wastewater treatment energy consumption and thus, the environmental impact of the sugar beet processing in general.

In essence, Waterleau turned a wastewater treatment plant into a clean water and biogas production plant. The holistic approach in designing water, wastewater and water recovery solutions not only benefits our clients but also contributes to our mission of preserving our most precious natural resource: water. Because we believe that every drop counts.