The fast growing biofuels industry faces industrial challenges requiring reactivity, flexibility and adaptability due to the sector's changing and innovative environment.

Producers, engineers and consulting companies must be able to respond to these challenges, which include first and second generation Bioethanol, Biodiesel and Biomass-To-Liquid (BTL) plants, greenfield sites and plant extensions.

Combining industrial performance and sustainable development while remaining competitive requires that the biofuels industry:

• Find easily duplicable solutions,
• Optimize capital expenses,
• Ensure industrial process safety,
• Reduce operational costs,
• Implement solutions providing significant savings, such as optimized energy consumption of installations,
• Comply with environmental regulations, which ultimately lead to the public's acceptance of a site.

At the industrial water cycle level, this means:

• Securing of process and utility waters (boilers, cooling towers),
• Stillage treatment for recovery and recycling (fertilizer, animal feed),
• Environmental compliance of discharged effluents, meeting increasingly stricter regulations,
• Implementation of partial or total water recycling solutions,
• Biogaz recovery.

Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS) responds to these needs through packaged and customized solutions based on its strong know-how and proven technological expertise:

• Pretreatment, including the compact and patented clarification process, Actiflo™
• Purified water using ion exchange or reverse osmosis for use in production processes or as boiler-feed or cooling tower make-up.
• Evaporation or anaerobic digestion of stillage for recovery as animal feed or fertilizer. VWS offers a unique High Efficiency Stillage Concentration solution (up to 50%), which reduces considerably the energy needs for the downstream drying step.
• UASB and EGSB anaerobic digestion, ideally suited to high loaded effluents and producing biogaz that can be recovered for energy production.
• Grease / water separation and aerobic treatment using Biolix™ and Agira™ or anaerobic digestion.
• Highly efficient wastewater treatment using Biosep™ membrane bio-reactors (MBR), which allow for water recycling.
• Recycling and Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) solutions
• Sludge treatment and recovery.

VWS provides a full range of services:

• After-sales services,
• Short and mid-term solutions to meet seasonal variations,
• Water treatment chemicals and legionella control programs,
• Audits, technical support, operating support,
• Financing: All-in-Pack™.