Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment Plant Management

At its manufacturing site in Irvine, Western Scotland, this large pharmaceutical Client has an effluent stream comprising a complex make-up of biological and chemical contaminants and a load equivalent to a medium-sized city.

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The wastewater requires multiple treatment processes to recover energy and heat for reuse on-site and safely discharge to the environment via a long sea outfall.

Alpheus has managed the site since 2004, taking full responsibility for the SEPA permit and ensuring the plant’s safe and efficient operation. Before the partnership with Alpheus, the Client ran the effluent plant themselves. However, they chose to outsource to a specialist who would deliver their long-term environmental, innovation, and efficiency goals for the plant.

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In addition to the day-to-day management of the plant, over the last two decades, Alpheus has worked closely with the Client to upgrade the plant to incorporate an Anaerobic Digestion process and to deliver numerous projects to improve efficiency and capacity. More recently the team has been working closely with the Client on long-term plans to reduce emissions and achieve net zero goals through a major upgrade of the plant.

Goals

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From the start, Alpheus has been committed to delivering environmental, sustainability, and efficiency goals, through continuous optimisation activity, to providing consultancy, design and implementation of improvement projects and upgrades. The Alpheus team are an extension of our Client’s team, working to their highest standards in terms of process and procedures to:

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Ensure the highest levels of on-site Process and Operational safety
Maximise performance and efficiency of the plant through continuous optimisation
Maximise biogas quality and yield to power on-site operations
Ensure compliant discharge with the SEPA permit
Support them in delivering emission reduction and Net Zero goals
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In addition to operating and maintaining the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and Anaerobic Digester (AD) plant, Alpheus took over the management of the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units that convert gas into heat and energy to ensure more efficient running and deliver long-term savings.

O&M Services Provided

At the beginning of the Operations and Maintenance contract, Alpheus carried out a root-and-branch review of the treatment processes which at times had struggled to meet compliance. From this starting point, optimisations were made to improve plant performance and ensure efficient and compliant running of the plant.

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Following this process Alpheus proposed that the assets used by the poorly performing bioreactor system could be converted into an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) system to return renewable energy and heat to the plant. Alpheus managed the entire process on behalf of the Client and with its successful implementation, this offsets a significant proportion of the energy costs.

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Seamless integration with the main site and its stringent processes and procedures is hugely important to the Client. The treatment plant processes align with the Client to ensure transparency and the smooth running of the plant, enabling contractors to work easily across any part of the site.

Nine full-time Alpheus staff are permanently employed on-site to keep all processes working at peak efficiency with additional support from our offsite specialists, enabling this leading pharmaceutical manufacturer to concentrate on its core business priorities.

The Alpheus Team Provide:

Operational, maintenance and embedded consultancy services to this Client, managing a £2m annual operational budget.
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Long-term asset management, focussed on proactive refurbishment and maintenance, which include both minor and major works to keep things operational for longer.
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Full legal responsibility for the site effluent management and discharge permit, issued and regulated by SEPA.
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Management of the Anaerobic Digestion process to maximise biogas output.
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Operations and maintenance of CHP units to maximise output.
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Ongoing innovation and optimisation as part of our operating philosophy of continuous improvement.
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Consultancy services on innovation strategies to improve performance, reduce emissions and achieve net zero goals through plant major upgrades.‍

Project highlights

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Alpheus has delivered numerous projects during the contract to meet the client’s expansion needs and to ensure high standards of efficiency, safety and compliance – working with key as required. Examples include:

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Treatment Process Improvements

A bespoke design with pre-treatment stages was proposed and bench-scale tests were carried out to obtain pre-funding. Agreement was reached with the environmental regulator SEPA and pilot trials were then carried out for an extended period to determine the potential impact of toxicity and nutrient deficiency from the pharmaceutical effluent on this process.

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Client Support

Alpheus assisted with a capital tendering process for the Client, assessing the technical aspects of different designs and, ultimately, took the role of Client representative during the upgrade project.

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Optimised manpower

By reducing manned hours on-site from 24/365 to 12/365 (with call-out), plant operators benefit from enhanced levels of supervision. This enables increased levels of maintenance under permit-to-work and process management support and advice while also reducing higher-risk anti-social hours and lone working.

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Biogas Production

Specific projects, such as the focused optimisation of biogas production, continue to yield significant gains. This has required research into the composition of the feed and targeted supplementation of trace nutrients, optimisation of process conditions and alignment of equipment servicing with periods of low production to reduce flaring.

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Odour Control Upgrades

The site had longstanding regulatory issues with odour control. Following an investigation by Alpheus into underlying reasons, the root cause was identified as a site-specific chemical reaction between two waste streams. By pre-treating the waste streams independently, we helped the client avoid the considerable cost of installing and operating an activated carbon filtering system.

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Asset Lifecycle Extension

Manufacturers of process equipment often place unrealistic maintenance requirements in their operating manuals to reduce their liability in the event of failure. For example, fitting a gas holder membrane with a manufacturer-specified 5-year service life would have negated the return investment. However, Alpheus devised a new application for a product to continuously monitor membrane condition which allowed the asset’s use to extend well beyond the 5 years, and to plan for its eventual replacement.

Milestones

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Alpheus has helped the site maximise the efficiency of their anaerobic digester. For the twelve months to the end of October 2023, this produced over 12 million KWH of energy, which would be enough to power over 3190 average households for a year.
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The recovery of biogas to produce energy for reuse on-site has meant 16,000 tonnes of carbon emissions have been saved since the AD plant was established in 2014.
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Extension of asset life to plant balance tanks by proposing and implementing clearing and lining of existing balance tanks, rather than replacing them, to extend their lifespan by up to 10 years. This is no mean feat - these tanks are large enough to hold the contents of more than 100 public swimming pools.
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The development of a new application for infra-red gas detection has allowed us to double the asset life of the gas holder membrane while increasing confidence in process integrity and safety. Our system of continuously monitoring the trace composition of vent flows on the gas holder allows the site to ensure that the climate impact of methane emissions is minimised.
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Production of reports required by SEPA on diverse subjects, such as the site’s impact on bathing water quality in Irvine Bay, emergency planning, climate change and solvent abatement.

Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment Plant Management

Goals

O&M Services Provided

The Alpheus Team Provide:

Project highlights

Treatment Process Improvements

Client Support

Optimised manpower

Biogas Production

Odour Control Upgrades

Asset Lifecycle Extension

Milestones

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