Bunge Loders Croklaan

Refinery

Customer: Bunge Loders Croklaan
Location: Maasvlakte Rotterdam
Activity: Refining vegetable oils
Revenues: € 1.6 billion

For multinational Bunge at the Maasvlakte, the costs for discharging wastewater on their annual budget are 'peanuts'. Nevertheless, they decided to invest in an MBR treatment plant. Water purification appears to be a "license to operate" for Bunge. Due to the composition of the wastewater, treatment is required. 

In choosing advanced suitable treatment technology, Bunge goes a little further than the industrial colleagues at the Maasvlakte. In the harbor of Rotterdam, usually conventional biological treatment plants are built. Bunge does it a greener by choosing an MBR. This makes the effluent purer than strictly necessary.

Initially, savings on discharge costs are experienced as only a pleasant side effect. Until it turns out that the refinery produces higher concentrated wastewater than was estimated at first. Fortunately, Septo anticipated on this potential exceedance and tackled these problems by installing biological en membrane overcapacity. Despite an increase in waste load, effluent can still be discharged at purification rates above 98%.

Years later, when it appears that discharge savings contribute significantly to the company’s revenue growth, treatment is even for Bunge no longer only a side effect.