Evoqua's Memcor® and Mempulse® Systems at core of Europe's largest MBR wastewater treatment facility
A key goal of the regional government in Rimini, Italy was to keep the beaches of the Northern Adriatic Sea along the coast of Italy on the famous 'Riviera Romagnola' among the most beautiful in the world. The government there has taken steps, together with HERA, operator of the regional wastewater treatment plant, to expand its existing operations while absorbing other WWTPs in the area. This has increased service from a population of 220,000 to 560,000 people who migrate to the area during the summer season.
Rimini has successfully inaugurated Europe’s largest membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment facility and is on-track to eliminate discharges to the Adriatic by 2020.
The new Rimini wastewater treatment facility utilises Evoqua Water Technologies’ Memcor® and Mempulse® MBR modules throughout. Mempulse is a sub-brand within the Memcor family.
The new expanded MBR line has an average daily flow that varies from approximately 55 million litres/day to more than 76 million litres. The target of the MBR line is to achieve an effluent with a quality higher than the stricter Italian legislation for reuse. Membranes are installed in tanks fed by gravity that can switch on/off according to need in order to ensure maximum flexibility. The total filtration area is approximately 150,000 square metres. In total, nearly 4,000 Mempulse MBR modules will be utilised in the new expansion.
Construction of the expansion began in 2012 and, at the end of 2014, the new Mempulse MBR line was put into operation. Following performance validation processes, the facility reached full capacity a few months thereafter and is actively recovering purified water for reuse and minimising discharge.
Because the Mempulse MBR system eliminates the need for secondary clarifiers and tertiary treatment, it results in superior effluent quality, and a lower lifecycle cost with a smaller footprint. By incorporating Mempulse MBR modules, the Rimini WWTP was able to decrease its footprint and reduce project and operating costs while still treating the wastewater to their strict specifications.
As a result, the region is well on its way to achieving its goal to completely eliminate discharges to the sea in 2020.