Developing technology for reducing water content rate of sludge from 80–85% to less at sludge 15% water and sewage treatment plant.

Chunghae ENV Co., Ltd. was selected as the "Global Top Environmental Technology Development Project (Biogas Refining Technology) “, the highest level of environmental R&D projects by the Ministry of Environment, and was judged “successful” after five years of research and development to be accredited as New Technology No. 216 of Republic of Korea “

Chunghae ENV Co., Ltd., which has excellent research and development personnel in the environment field, obtained more than 30 patents and utility models and is accelerating research and development with the belief that technology development and is the only way for SMEs to survive competitively.

It is reckless enough to make constant investments despite the poor environment of small and medium-sized enterprises that cannot make profits immediately.

Nevertheless, due to the strong mindset of Byungkwan Lee, CEO of CHUNGHAE ENV Co., Ltd., that technology development is the leading springboard to a small but strong company, he patiently puts all of his efforts into technology development and succeeds in leading projects for the environment conducted by small and medium-sized companies in Korea.

After acquiring new technology through ‘4-stage membrane recirculation process technology to recover methane and carbon dioxide from pre-treatment processes under low-temperature and low-pressure conditions’, CEO Lee has been working on ‘energy-saving natural fermentation and dehydration for sewage sludge’ selected as a subject in “Project to promote the industrialization of promising green environmental technology” conducted by Ministry of Environment since 2017.

These tasks, undertaken by Chunghae ENV Co., Ltd., have an excellent distinction from other alternative or competitive products.

It is a complex deodorization technology that reduces sludge with a water content rate of 80 to 85% to 15% or less at sewage treatment plants and removes acid, alkaline, and neutral odors generated during the drying process.

1) Airtight standing type circular reaction tank, 2) a natural fermentation and drying method without using external heat sources, 3) automatic control of air supply and stirring speed, 4) a fermentation facilitation function by the internal pressure of the reaction tank, 5) Selection and usage of microorganism which vitalize under the condition of anaerobic/breathing, acid resistance, heat resistance and 6) deodorization. These are differentiating points from existing drying technology.

In addition, the initial investment cost is 60 million won/ton and the operation cost is 28,000 won/ton, which is cheaper than other technologies, and it is an excellent economic technology compared to existing commercialized domestic and foreign technologies.

The technology development process was conducted in 2017 to demonstrate the natural fermentation and drying system of energy-saving sewage sludge, and in November 2018, it was operated as an on-site pilot at the Incheon Environmental Management Corporation and now in the process of economic analysis and evaluation for certification agreement.

According to the ripple effect of the technology, various technologies that can lower wastewater sludge with a water content rate of 80 to 85 percent to less than 20% for solid fuel usage have already been developed and commercialized.

However, disposal costs for sludge compared with such as landfill are very low and sludge reduction technology economically proved are very rare. Therefore, securing technological and economic superiority is expected to bring large ripple effects not only in the wastewater treatment industry but also in other industries such as deodorization and plants including machinery and electricity, and also can maximize technological effects such as avoiding regulations and technology transfers in advanced countries.

In particular, the reduction and utilization of sewage sludge due to difficulties in securing landfills and incinerators due to secondary pollutants, high disposal costs, etc. are the main concerns of advanced countries and other countries around the world.

The amount of wastewater sludge generation is rapidly increasing regardless of domestic and foreign countries.

As residents continue to complain about harmful substances and odors in the process of sewage and wastewater sludge treatment and disposal, securing effective treatment technology is expected to not only solve the problem of sludge disposal through reduction of quantity but also increase effective usage of energy through organic waste recycling.

The expected effect of success is very high market acceptance and growth in related industries as sewage sludge generation increases, and economic effects such as 4.5 billion won in sales in 2021 are also expected through the sale of development technology.

Moreover, due to the revitalization of the domestic industrial market, which is related to the reduction of sewage sludge and utilization, it is expected to have a great effect on expanding employment and enhancing the national image through technology exports abroad.

Looking at domestic demand sources, sewage sludge has generated about 10,000 tons/day nationwide according to the national sewage information system in 2014, and its generation has also been on a steady rise.

Sewage sludge treatment facilities operate in 95 out of 597 public sewage treatment facilities (more than 500m3/day) nationwide and generate sewage sludge of 3,654,237m3/year.

Disposal of sewage sludge is the highest in recycling (fueling and fertilizing) at about 2034,811m3/year (55.7%), followed by incineration at 15,425m3/year (22.3%) and landfill at 692,274m3/year (18.9%).

Based on this technology, Byeongkwan Lee, CEO of Chunghae ENV, said, "We are commercializing based on 4P strategy (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion), and expanding to private companies after concentrating on public sewage treatment facilities.

Also, we are targeting overseas markets with indirect export strategies through domestic and foreign buyers and direct export strategies that utilize general trading companies such as Daewoo International," he said.

Earlier, Chunghae ENV Co., Ltd.'s new technology Pilot was conducted at the Paju Environmental Circulation Center in Wolong-myeon, and in early June, we directly covered the evaluation by the Korea Institute of Environmental Industry when certifying new technologies.

However, it remains regrettable that the project will be carried out at the Incheon Ganghwa office, not at Paju. We look forward to the active open administration of local governments for the excellent development of small and medium enterprises that develop public technology.

Source: Paju Era 2018.12.4