Bondalti Water has developed and implemented a new demineralised water production system at The Navigator Company's industrial unit in Setúbal. The equipment was installed at the Pulp Mill, to produce demineralised water as part of the New Recovery Boiler project - a key piece of equipment for the company, as it makes it possible to maximise the reuse of process water, with clear effects on the circularity of this resource.
Fully developed and produced by Bondalti Water, the solution used the best available technologies to ensure a significant reduction in the specific consumption of water and energy in the operation of the boiler. The overall water recovery rate now stands at around 92 per cent, which represents a significant advance in the circularity of water resources.
The installed unit has a production capacity of 234 m3/h, made up of two 117 m3/h production lines, and includes three main stages - multimedia filtration, reverse osmosis and continuous electrodeionisation - with the aim of obtaining ultrapure water, the highest level of water quality for energy production, required in the most demanding industrial activities.
The first phase involves pre-treatment with retention of suspended solids in high-performance multimedia filters.
Next, reverse osmosis technology reduces the salinity of the water by passing it through a semi-permeable membrane, allowing the separation of ions, molecules and dissolved particles. The process ends with the polishing stage, which is carried out by a continuous electrodeionisation unit.
The project developed at The Navigator Company reinforces Bondalti Water's presence in the pulp and paper sector, where the company has been developing sustainable solutions and technologies to reduce water consumption by reusing different flows, including industrial effluents.
This area of activity is one of several that make up Bondalti Water's wide range of solutions for the Integrated Water Cycle, promoting sustainability and operational efficiency in the management of this essential resource in different sectors.
The Navigator Company is a bioindustry that produces forestry, pulp, paper, tissue, sustainable packaging solutions and bioenergy in an integrated way, and whose business is based on state-of-the-art factories worldwide, with cutting-edge technology. The company is the third largest exporter in Portugal and the first in terms of National Added Value, representing approximately 1% of the national GDP. With a history of R&D and industrialisation capacity, The Navigator Company is currently going through a phase of rapid growth and diversification in the forest-based bioeconomy, developing new bioproducts that are seen as alternatives to the products that are currently obtained from fossil fuels.
